Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, has asked the National Center for Education Statistics and the Office of Postsecondary Education to conduct a study of “restrictive” policies that make it more difficult for students to transfer credits from one institution to another. Higher-education experts have argued that loosening such policies would help the nation reach President Obama’s goal of increasing the number of college graduates.
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2 Responses to Duncan Orders Study of Restrictive Transfer Policies
honore - May 10, 2010 at 10:03 pm
Oh yeah this is exactly what H/E needs… national oversight over the transfer of credit from community colleges, or other branches of a state system.It would seem that Secretary Arne would do better to focus the White House’s eyes on matters affecting H/E that REALLY need desperate attentionHere’s a few:***Address the MASSIVE amount of loans amassed by students***Devise assistance for H/E to better assist inadequately prepared UGs so they can persist to graduation***Provide loan forgiveness programs for students who devote a certain number of years to civic, public or federal programs for educational advancement of K-12***Develop graduate/professional school financial assistance programs***Offer H/E incentives for Pre-College entry programs at every 4 year school in the country***Make military financial assistance an easily obtrainable reality and not a gauntlet of chaos for those that have served their country in ways more meaningful than alumni “legacy” applicants who haven’tThe list is really endless, but it’s a start.
jesor - May 13, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Actually, this is a huge issue for the feds. Through the financial aid system, the federal government is literally paying for students to take, and pass, the same class twice. For example, I have seen students take a “business law” class at their local community college, and then after transfering, have to take a “legal issues in business” class at their transfer destination (both public institutions in the same state), because someone in the department decided that the order that the concepts were taught in was too different from what the department had decided upon. Science departments will often refuse to accept a course in transfer because a different textbook was used, regardless of the actual content listed in the syllabus. Because of this, these students are less likely to complete, if they do complete, they will take longer to do so, and consume more federal resources (i.e. pell grants, subsidized loan interest payments, etc.)