Five higher-education experts sent a letter today to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, saying that one way to achieve the Obama administration’s goal of increasing the number of college graduates is to crack down on colleges that use restrictive policies on transferring academic credits from one institution to another. According to the letter, those policies could help explain why students, 60 percent of whom end up attending more than one college, fail to graduate. “A credible study of the costs of restrictive transfer policies” — called for in the 1998 Higher Education Act — “remains badly needed,” says the letter, which was signed by Kevin Carey of Education Sector, Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute, Anne D. Neal of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, Mark Schneider of the American Institutes for Research, and Richard Vedder of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity.
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One Response to Duncan Is Urged to Act on Colleges’ Restrictive Credit-Transfer Policies
rshawver - March 2, 2010 at 9:27 am
AMEN! When I had a son and daughter at Indiana University in Bloomington and needed to have them transfer back to Indianapolis, IU at Indianapolis refused to accept about a year of credit for my son and more than 12 credits for my daughter! It was unbelievable to me. It’s the same college for pete’s sake!Furthermore, when my niece graduated from Ivy Tech Community College of INdiana, IU refused to accept more than half of the credits she earned for her accounting degree. They personally told me that Ivy Tech was not their “equal”. My niece didn’t get to pursue her 4-year degree for that reason. I single mom with three kids simply couldn’t afford to start over.Additionally, when I worked for Ivy Tech, my daughter’s counselor kept insisting that even history wouldn’t transfer because the courses weren’t equal — that is until I got on the phone and explained the written approval policy between the two schools. The good news is both of my children graduated BUT we paid dearly for the extra courses. I now live in Texas where are state universities accept community college credits; and this is only fair to the countless low-income and first generation students that begin their college careers with us. I wish Education Secretary Duncan much success. Thousands of students are counting on him.