The agreement will save students and families time and money and will stretch taxpayer-funded dollars.
The CAA was driven by the growing number of community college students transferring to the state’s public universities and an increased focus on student success. Community college students planning to transfer to a UNC campus have been guided by a 1997 joint agreement that outlined how course credits transfer between the systems.
As general education requirements evolved, students increasingly found that some credits did not count toward their major programs of study, resulting in delays in degree attainment and added costs for students and families. Under the revised agreement, community college students will enter transfer pathways with clearly defined goals and an understanding of how earned transfer hours fit into university requirements.
In addition, the revised agreement:
• Identifies foundational courses that will transfer to all UNC campuses to meet general education requirements.
• Improves transfer student success by requiring coursework that helps students map their academic pathway from community colleges to universities.
• Encourages community college students to complete an Associate in Arts or Associate in Science degree before transferring to a UNC campus by guaranteeing entry as juniors with full transfer credit. Halifax Community College Admissions Officer Antonio Squire recently discussed his transfer experience to Elizabeth City State University, one of the campuses in the UNC system.
Squire graduated from HCC and then transferred to ECSU in 2009. He graduated from ECSU by spring 2011, majoring in communication studies. “HCC played a major role in my success at ECSU because I gained helpful study skills, time management skills from a Student Support Services workshop and the desire to work hard to achieve good grades from the faculty and staff that mentored me at HCC,” said Squire. “HCC taught me to be productive not only in the classroom but also in my community.” Squire commented that the transfer process went smoothly for him because most of his courses did transfer into his program of study.
He was required to take a few general education courses at ECSU before he was able to fully enroll in his major courses, but that was not a problem for him. “After that first semester, all of my courses were directly within my program focus,” added Squire. “Thanks to the skills and work ethic I gained at HCC, I was well prepared for the next level of my educational journey. I was able to graduate from ECSU with a 3.4 GPA and was inducted into Sigma Tau Delta, which is an English Honor Society, during my final semester,” said Squire. “I don't think I could have done all that I have accomplished or be a better person if it was not for all that I was equipped with from HCC.” Hundreds of faculty and administrators from North Carolina’s 58 community colleges and 16 UNC campuses weighed in on the design and development of the modified transfer agreement.
A steering committee of faculty and chief academic officers from both systems crafted the final product. The revised CAA will go into effect for new college transfer students, starting fall 2014. Students currently enrolled in an Associate in Arts or Associate in Science program will continue under the existing agreement as long as they remain continuously enrolled. Nearly 24,000 students who began their studies at a North Carolina community college are now undergraduate students on UNC campuses, which accounts for more than half, or 54 percent, of all UNC transfer students. These numbers are expected to grow in the years ahead.
