\n<\/p>\n
Transfer students often experience a range of challenges transitioning from a community college to a four-year institution, including credit loss and feeling like they don\u2019t belong on campus. <\/p>\n
At the University of California, Santa Barbara, about 20\u00a0percent of incoming students are transfers. More than 90\u00a0percent of those transfers come from California community colleges and aspire to complete their degree in two years. <\/p>\n
While many have achieved that goal, they often lacked time to explore campus offerings or felt pressured to complete their degree on an expedited timeline, according to institutional data.<\/p>\n
\u201cStudents feel pressure to complete in two years for financial reasons and because that is the expectation they receive regarding four-year graduation,\u201d said Linda Adler-Kassner, associate vice chancellor of teaching and learning. Transfer students said they don\u2019t want to \u201cgive up\u201d part of their two years on campus to study away, she said. <\/p>\n
Institutional data also revealed that their academic exploration opportunities were limited, with fewer transfers participating in research or student groups, which are identified as high-impact practices.<\/p>\n
As a result, the university created a new initiative to improve transfer student awareness of on-campus opportunities. <\/p>\n
Getting data: <\/strong>UCSB\u2019s institutional research planning and assessment division conducts an annual new student survey, which collects information on students\u2019 demographic details, academic progress and outside participation or responsibilities. The fall 2024 survey revealed that 26\u00a0percent of transfers work for pay more than 20 hours per week; an additional 40\u00a0percent work between 10 and 20 hours per week. Forty-four\u00a0percent of respondents indicated they do not participate in clubs or student groups. <\/p>\n In 2024, the Office of Teaching and Learning conducted a transfer student climate study to \u201cidentify specific areas where the transfer student experience could be more effectively supported,\u201d Adler-Kassner said. The OTL at UCSB houses six units focused on advancing equity and effectively supporting learners. <\/p>\n The study found that while transfers felt welcomed at UCSB, few were engaging in high-impact practices and many had little space in their schedules for academic exploration, \u201cwhich leads them to feel stress as they work on a quick graduation timeline,\u201d Adler-Kassner said. <\/p>\n Put into practice: <\/strong>Based on the results, OTL launched various initiatives to make campus stakeholders aware of transfer student needs and create effective interventions to support their success. <\/p>\n Among the first was the Transfer Connection Project, which surveys incoming transfer students to identify their interests. OTL team members use that data to match students\u2019 interests with campus resources and generate a personalized letter that outlines where the student can get plugged in on campus. In fall 2025, 558 students received a personal resource guide. <\/p>\n The data also showed that a majority\u2014more than 60\u00a0percent\u2014of transfers sought to enroll in four major programs: communications, economics, psychological and brain sciences, and statistics and data science. <\/p>\n In turn, OTL leaders developed training support for faculty and teaching assistants working in these majors to implement transfer-focused pedagogies. Staff also facilitate meet-and-greet events for transfers to meet department faculty. <\/p>\n This work builds on the First Generation and Transfer Scholars Welcome, which UCSB has hosted since 2017. The welcome event includes workshops, a research opportunity fair and facilitated networking to get students engaged early. <\/p>\n The approach is unique because it is broken into various modules that, when combined, create a holistic approach to student support, Adler-Kassner said. <\/p>\n Gauging impact: <\/strong>Early data shows the interventions have improved student success. <\/p>\n Since beginning this work, UCSB transfer retention has grown from 87\u00a0percent in 2020 to 94\u00a0percent in 2023. Similarly, graduation rates increased 10\u00a0percentage points from 2020 to 2024. Adler-Kassner noted that while this data may be correlated with the interventions, it does not necessarily demonstrate causation. <\/p>\n In addition, the Transfer Student Center reaches about 40\u00a0percent of the transfer student population each year, and institutional data shows that those who engage with the center have a four-percentage-point higher retention rate and two-point higher graduation rate than those who don\u2019t. <\/p>\n Do you have an intervention that might help others promote student success? Tell us about it.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Transfer students often experience a range of challenges transitioning from a community college to a four-year institution, including credit loss and feeling like they don\u2019t belong on campus. At the University of California, Santa Barbara, about 20\u00a0percent of incoming students are transfers. More than 90\u00a0percent of those transfers come from California community colleges and aspire<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[1111,393,873,8649,3364],"class_list":{"0":"post-28255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-data","9":"tag-student","10":"tag-success","11":"tag-supporting","12":"tag-transfer"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}