Redefining the community college transfer mission

Community College Review, Fall, 2001 by Barbara K. Townsend

Current patterns of student transfer from and to the community college need to be considered in examining the community college transfer mission. These patterns demonstrate that two sets of students--those who begin their postsecondary education by enrolling at community colleges and those who begin at four-year colleges--take community college courses in their desire to attain the baccalaureate. When these transfer patterns are examined for their effect upon baccalaureate attainment, it can be demonstrated that they help both sets of students save on college costs, and they speed up time-to-degree for four-year students. The effect upon the quality of education attained is less clear. Given the reality of these transfer patterns, the community college transfer mission needs to be redefined as facilitating baccalaureate degree attainment for college students in general, not just for students who begin their undergraduate education in the two-year college.

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When the public junior college was initially created in 1901, its central mission was transfer education. Students would take the first two years of an undergraduate degree at the two-year college and transfer to a four-year institution to complete the baccalaureate. Completion of the first two years was certified by the Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree or the more specialized Associate of Science (A.S.) degree depending on the student's program of study. Underlying the junior college's transfer mission was the assumption that transfer would occur in one direction only: upwardly vertical. Students would transfer from the two-year college, not to it, and ideally transfer after having completed the A.A. degree. Universities determined the terms of the transfer by indicating which courses and programs would transfer and which ones would not (Cooley, 2000, p. 23). How well this two-year college mission was accomplished was determined by what percentage of an institution's students transferred to the four-year sector and what their academic performance was, once there.

In the ensuing century since the first public junior college was created, the institution has evolved into the comprehensive community college. Transfer education, defined as "the capacity of community ... colleges to assist students in the transition to a four-year college or university" (National Center for Academic Achievement and Transfer, 1990), is still a central institutional mission. The importance of this mission is exemplified in California's public system of higher education. A leader in the development of community colleges, California has planned its public system so that California students can "begin their postsecondary education at a community college and transfer to a public university to complete a baccalaureate degree" (California Postsecondary Education Commisssion, 1998).

Not only state planners but also students see the community college as a vehicle for facilitating baccalaureate attainment. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics show that 42% of the students attending public two-year colleges in 1995-96 intended to earn a bachelor's degree (Phillippe, 2000). How many of these students actually do is unclear. Limited evidence is provided by national studies that examine the transfer rate of "[a]ll students entering [a community college] in a given year who have no prior college experience, and who complete at least twelve college credit units within four years of entry ... [and] who take one or more classes at an in-state, public university within four years" (Cohen & Brawer, 1996, p. 58). From 21 to 24% of these students transfer (p. 60).

Some critics have argued that the community college's transfer mission does not serve well those students who begin at the institution in anticipation of completing a four-year degree (e.g., Bernstein, 1986; Brint & Karabel, 1989; Pincus & Archer, 1989). The research consistently shows that when students beginning at the community college are matched on entering characteristics with students beginning at a four-year college, the four-year college students are more likely to complete the baccalaureate (Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991). Because of this fact, critics contend that the community college has failed in its transfer mission because beginning one's postsecondary education at the community college may work against the likelihood of attaining a baccalaureate. Indeed, some suggest that the community college should no longer have a transfer mission but rather should concentrate on preparing a workforce necessary for the college's local community and the state (e.g., Clowes and Levin, 1989).

This criticism of the community college's transfer mission is an important one and should not be ignored. It is significant to note, however, that the criticism reflects the perspective that the transfer mission is simply providing the first two years of a baccalaureate for students who start at a community college and intend to transfer to a four-year college. If the definition of the transfer mission is expanded to reflect college students' current transfer patterns, it becomes readily apparent that the transfer mission is a vital, healthy component of the community college. Therefore, the current transfer patterns of students taking courses at the two-year college will be described and assessed for how they facilitate baccalaureate attainment. Implications of these patterns for research and practice will then be discussed.