THEBC/ UEAC
September 26, 2014 By David Burris
SHSU Articulation Coordinator
Contents / Page1 / SHSU Reverse Transfer Transcript Opportunities Spring 2013 – Fall 2014 / 2
2 / Current Reverse Transfer Success Rates / 3
3 / Reverse Transfer Success Rate Prior to 2011 / 4
4 / Transcript Identifying Information and Selection Filter / 5
5 / SHSU Reverse Transfer Registrar Notification Email 2014 / 5
6 / College Residence Requirements Versus Potential Reverse Transfer Candidates / 8
7 / Cooperative Reverse Transfer Opportunities / 9
8 / Reverse Transfer Mechanics Summary: / 10
9 / University Challenges / 10
10 / Reverse Transfer Data 2008 versus 2014 / 11
11 / Seamless Transfer Program Integrating High Schools, Colleges, and Universities / 15
12 / Time Compressed Degree Plans / 15
13 / Online Articulation / 15
14 / Reverse Transfer / 16
15 / Joint Admissions / 16
16 / Cooperative Advising / 16
17 / Desirable Advising Goal for College Transfer Students Pursuing the Baccalaureate Degree / 16
18 / State of Reverse Transfer Prior to and Since 2012 / 18
19 / Reverse Transfer Education Program / 21
20 / Texas Community College Instructional Administrators (TCCIA) Reverse Transfer Contact List Fall 2014 / 23
The next challenge for “Closing the Gaps” is “Time Compressed Degree Plans” allowing students to seamlessly attain the high school diploma, associate, and baccalaureate degrees in 6 years or less. The required infrastructure to support this goal already exists!
Reverse Transfer Spring 2013 ThruFall 2014
Sam Houston State University
College / Residence hours / Spring 2013 / Fall 2013 / Spring 2014 / Fall 2014Alamo
St. Philips
Lakeview
North Vista
Palo Alto
San Antonio / 15 / 28 / 45
6
0
16
7
16 / 29
2
0
9
8
10 / 26
4
0
10
8
4
Alvin / 15 / 42 / 54 / 38 / 40
Amarillo / 15 / 1 / 3 / 2 / 2
Angelina / 15 / 85 / 90 / 71 / 65
Austin / 15 / 70 / 70 / 45 / 48
Blinn (21) / 21 / 543 / 529 / 428 / 425
Brazosport (24) / 24 / 77 / 74 / 46 / 49
Central Texas / 15 / 37 / 36 / 22 / 26
Coastal Bend / 15 / 6 / 5 / 7 / 6
CISCO / 15 / 0 / 6 / 3 / 2
College of Mainland / 15 / 28 / 20 / 24 / 15
Collin County / 15 / 26 / 35 / 21 / 28
DCCCD / 15 / 64 / 73 / 58 / 63
Del Mar / 15 / 12 / 7 / 6 / 6
El Paso Comm Col / 15 / 4 / 6 / 3 / 4
Galveston / 15 / 16 / 12 / 7 / 10
Grayson / 15 / 2 / 2 / 1 / 3
HCCS / 15 / 89 / 210 / 167 / 175
Hill / 15 / 20 / 19 / 16 / 13
Howard Col / 15
Kilgore / 15 / 32 / 30 / 23 / 16
Lamar State College-Orange / 15 / 13 / 14 / 7 / 5
Lamar State College -Port Arthur / 15 / 5 / 7 / 4 / 2
Laredo Comm Col / 15 / 6 / 6 / 5 / 3
Lee / 15 / 35 / 29 / 22 / 20
LSCS / 18 / 1392 / 1472 / 1338 / 1397
Mc Lennan / 15 / 55 / 44 / 27 / 31
Midland / 15 / 7 / 14 / 3 / 2
Navarro / 15 / 92 / 90 / 83 / 83
North Central Texas College / 15 / 0 / 12 / 11
Northeast Texas Community College / 15 / 6 / 5 / 7
Odessa / 15 / 0 / 1
Panola / 15 / 9 / 2 / 6 / 7
Paris JC / 15 / 28 / 9 / 10 / 8
San Jacinto (16) / 16 / 178 / 166 / 132 / 120
South Plains College / 16 / 0 / 6
Southwest Texas Junior College / 15 / 5 / 6 / 7
Tarrant County Coll TCCD / 15 / 37 / 34 / 25 / 31
Temple / 15 / 47 / 48 / 40 / 26
Texas State Technical College / 15 / 2 / 0
Trinity Valley / 15 / 41 / 34 / 33 / 31
Tyler Junior College / 15 / 49 / 44 / 43 / 39
Vernon College / 15 / 8 / 6 / 5
Victoria / 15 / 12 / 15 / 8 / 10
Weatherford / 15 / 8 / 7 / 7 / 4
Wharton (24) / 24 / 99 / 98 / 82 / 59
Total / 3,314 / 3,459 / 2,899 / 2,897
This table exhibits recent filtered transcripts (tailored to each college) for reverse transfer.
Current Reverse Transfer Success Rates
The number of available transcripts is for reverse transfer misleading. Colleges are not required to report success rates. Currently less than a third of colleges provide us with useful feedback. A few tell us they graduate about 95% to 100% of filtered students but not necessarily in a given semester. Since we have no way of knowing who has been awarded degrees and when we typically send transcripts to the college for a given student as many as three times. This a choice made by the college registrars. Some colleges do this on purpose with the hope of eventually awarding both the associate of science and associate of arts to the same student but in different semesters.
Not all colleges will participate in reverse transfer. Some colleges who normally participate will not have the resources to participate in a specific semester.
No college has ever returned transcripts for students who graduate to update our records. If they all sent transcripts it would overwhelm our system unless the transcripts are sent electronically. We would only be able to handle the volume if notified ahead of time the transcripts were being sent in a batch and marked with degree conferral using the state standard reporting format so we could process them electronically.
Reverse Transfer Success Rates Prior to 2011
Prior to 2011 the success rate for reverse transfer degrees varied from 90% to 0% after colleges applied institution degree requirements. Zero percent was not unusual. Most colleges have since reduced residence requirements to the minimum SACS requirement. In addition colleges have eliminated additional institutional requirements such as extra Kinesiology or English courses. Current success rates (combined fall and spring) appear to range from 90+% to a low of about 70% for most participating institutions.
The best known success of the reverse transfer program was with Blinn College. They increased the number of associate degrees awarded by more than 20% for 4 consecutive years (25% in 2005). During this period Blinn says SHSU received approximately 7% of their transfer students with 85% going to TAMU and another 7% attending Texas State University San Marcos. Blinn had to withdraw recently from reverse transfer processing for several years during their conversion to Banner.
The worse success rate is graduating only 40 students in 5 years from over 4,000 unique filtered transcripts. Colleges are still having substantial problems processing high volumes of reverse transfer transcripts.
Transcript Identifying Information and Selection Filter
In addition to transcripts, we provide the colleges with a spread sheet to help them match our records to their records which includes the following fields using Trinity Valley Community College as an example. This spreadsheet also allows the college to identify students previously awarded associate degrees but reported to SHSU saving them time.
Name / ID / SSN / Birth Date / Transfer Institution / Transfer Credits from Institution / Student Level / Major / Transfer GPA / Transfer Credits Earned / Inst GPA / Inst Credits Earned / Overall GPA / Overall Credits Earned / Core CompleteName / ID / SSN / Birth Date / Transfer Institution / Transfer Credits from Institution / Student Level / Major / Transfer GPA / Transfer Credits Earned / Inst GPA / Inst Credits Earned / Overall GPA / Overall Credits Earned
Street / Street2 / City / State / Zipcode / SHSU Email / Phone Number
| Academic Period: Fall 2014 | Transfer Institutions: Trinity Valley Community Col - 003572 | Transfer Credits from Institution Range: Greater than or equal to 15 | Core Complete Status: Core Complete Only | Exclude Associate Degrees | Overall Credit Hrs Range: Greater than or equal to 60 | Inst Credits Hrs Range: Greater than or equal to 3 | Transfer Credit Hrs Range: Greater than or equal to 15
(Actual reverse transfer notification email with filter for fall 2014 follows:)
SHSU Reverse Transfer Registrar Notification Email Fall 2014
REVERSE TRANSFER TRANSCRIPTS AND SPREADSHEET
** New ability to select transcripts sent via from those selected on the secure server! **
The reverse transfer spreadsheet for fall 2014 is available now on the secure server indicating XX students may qualify for the associate degree. Spreadsheets for fall 2014 and the ability to provide the corresponding transcripts will terminate at the end of December. As usual, records for fall were filtered as follow:
1)College specific minimum residence hours. We used 15 hours if your minimum value for residence hours is not on file. I would be happy to run the data set again if your residence requirement has changed.
2)60 or more combined hours college plus university.
3)Core complete either institution.
4)Currently attending SHSU.
5)No associate degree on file.
We have made a great effort to eliminate transcripts that do not meet minimum qualifications. If you find transcripts not meeting the above minimum standards, please provide me the students name and Sam Identification number so we can continue to improve the filtering process. If you do not have an account on the server, contact me for a copy of the account request form.
Transcripts will be sent by SPEEDE (EDI) upon request.
** New ability to select transcripts sent via from those selected on the secure server! **Normally we send all transcripts selected (on the spreadsheet). If desiredyou may select a subset of transcripts for transmission. Simply send me a spreadsheet with a single column. Each cell in the column should contain the Sam-ID of a student whose transcript you desire.
Thank you,
David Burris
David Burris, Ph.D., CCP, CSP
SHSU Articulation Coordinator
936-294-1568
or
{ End of Email }
Account Creation on the SHSU Secure Server for College Registrars
College registrars are required to have an account on the SHSU system to access the secure server and download the reverse transfer spread sheet.
Please complete the attached computer account request form. It takes 5 to 10 working days to obtain an account which you will receive by email. After setting a password send me an email so I can increase your privilege level to access the secure server.
The signed account request form may be returned as a pdf or scanned image to by email. If sent by fax, be sure to send me an email so I know to process it.
The spreadsheet contains information to help you match transcripts from our system to transcripts on your system. It also contains student contact information. I recommend contacting students selected for degrees via email (preferred).
Thank you,
David Burris
College Residence Requirements
Versus Potential
Reverse Transfer Candidates
College / 15 hrs. residence / 18 hrs.residence / 21 hrs.
residence / 24hrs.
residence / % Loss from 18 to 24 hour residency requirement.
1 / Alvin / 88 / 84 / 80 / 73 / 13.1
2 / Angelina / 185 / 176 / 166 / 158 / 10.2
3 / Austin / 188 / 177 / 172 / 162 / 8.5
4 / Blinn / 1503 / 1480 / 1457 / 1444 / 2.4
5 / Brazosport / 140 / 134 / 131 / 125 / 6.7
6 / DCCCD / 147 / 137 / 131 / 122 / 10.9
7 / Galveston / 32 / 30 / 30 / 27 / 3.1
8 / HCCS / 469 / 446 / 416 / 396 / 11.2
9 / Hill / 33 / 31 / 31 / 31 / 6.1
10 / Lamar-Orange / 19 / 17 / 15 / 15 / 11.8
11 / LSCS / 2735 / 2667 / 2590 / 2506 / 6.0
12 / McLennan / 98 / 51 / 49 / 47 / 7.8
13 / Navarro / 174 / 167 / 159 / 155 / 7.2
14 / San Jacinto / 302 / 289 / 273 / 259 / 10.4
15 / Trinity Valley / 62 / 60 / 56 / 55 / 8.3
16 / Victoria / 31 / 30 / 29 / 29 / 3.3
17 / Weatherford / 25 / 25 / 25 / 23 / 8.0
18 / Wharton / 224 / 217 / 201 / 194 / 10.6
The Texas Community College Instructional Administrators (TCCIA) asked SHSU to provide information on the effect of college residence requirements and availability of potential reverse transfer degree requirements. The results are shown in the above table for 2012. Records selected for inclusion in this report are based on the indicated total hours transferred, the combination of hours transferred plus SHSU hours greater than or equal to 60, and no associate degree on file. The total college hours transferred may reflect more than one transfer institution making the results higher than they should be for some institutions. To receive a reverse transfer degree the student must meet the minimum residence requirement for the college. We cannot always tell from electronic transcripts if the course was taken at the college or merely included on the transcript.
Cooperative Reverse Transfer Opportunities
1)Reverse Transfer Evaluation works best at the system level as opposed to individual colleges.
2)All colleges must be able to send and receive transcripts electronically with other colleges, universities, and public school systems. (Close to universal but not quite there.)
3)At present many college and some universities enter electronic transcripts in their internal transcript system by hand (still wide spread). The process is labor intensive, error prone, and expensive. Development of a state wide electronic solution for integrating electronic transcripts directly into major software products like Banner and PeopleSoft would be helpful.
Colleges may be able to work with a dozen electronic transcripts but a few hundred or a thousand over whelm their evaluation resources. The reverse would probably be true for universities receiving a corresponding volume information from colleges without standardization allowing electronic processing.
4)Transcript evaluation is currently done totally by hand at many if not most institutions. For reverse transfer to be successful the process must be automated at least partially. Many colleges require transcript evaluators to get permission for course substitution on a student-by-student basis from academic deans. Substitutions are not done consistently. Again, this process must be automated.
5)“Opt-In” as a policy on the Texas Common Application for reverse transfer is not currently serving the needs of students or the state.
6)Reverse transfer contact list for all colleges wishing to participate in reverse transfer would be helpful to universities and colleges. SHSU maintains a list of college reverse transfer contacts but apparently there is not a corresponding university list.
7)A major problem for college and universities is the lack of an effective standardized method to match transcripts between institutions. Even if an institution is very successful matching one or a few dozen transcripts they choke on 100 or 1,000 transcripts.
8)Provide universities timely and exact feedback on associate degree/certificate award rate.
9)By nature, college registrars are busy people often wearing more than one hat. Reverse transfer degrees will not be awarded unless they are made a priority by a higher office.
10)Inconsistency: Some colleges award the same student the AA and AS, others just one.
11)Inconsistency: Some colleges award degrees without contacting the individual others only with permission.
12)One college has previously contacted students within 12 hours of graduation by email letting them know if they transfer the missing course work anywhere they will graduate.
Reverse Transfer Mechanics Summary:
1)Ability to import electronic transcripts directly into college transcript system.
2)Unique identifier used by colleges and universities to identify student using computer software eliminating need for human intervention. Examples would include use of social security numbers or a unique identifier assigned by the state staying with the student their entire educational career.
3)Software transcript evaluation for degree audit.
4)Better communications between colleges and universities.
5)Student friendly legal interpretation of privacy laws, e.g., meant to protect student but not prevent desirable services such as receiving a degree.
University Challenges
1)Marking electronic transcripts in an automatable manner to note dual credit, early college, AP, and related credits on college transcripts. This would make it easier to identify students who require help as first time students as opposed to true upper division students. Universities would also like to track the success of these programs and determine if universities need to provide additional services to these students to successfully make the academic transition.
2)Marking electronic transcripts in an automatable manner to record core complete.
3)Marking electronic transcripts in an automatable manner to record associate degree completion.
4)It is relatively easy to map the first 36 hour of common core courses between colleges and universities. It is much more difficult to identify institutionally designated core courses, especially for those students who are partially core complete unless marked in an electronically consistent state wide manner.
5)Use of the state common application for universities to select reverse transfer candidates is not working as intended. Selection of reverse transfer degree candidates by universities based on “opt in (as opt out as opposed to opt-out)” has led to reductions in the number of potential reverse transfer degrees in the neighborhood of 85% by some universities. The decision to limit candidate selection using “opt-in” in the common application is typically made by systems attorneys.
6)EDI (SPEEDIE) is currently a choke point. At present, SHSU must write separate computer code each college individually (as do you) to attain required information. It might be a good idea to use the EDI servers to enforce the standard formats on text fields. They would return improperly formatted text back to the sender to be corrected rather than propagate the non-standard material through the system. Enforcement of standards would potentially allow using a computer code to process all institutions uniformly reducing the effort for everyone with respect to processing transcripts. SHSU marks transcripts following the state standard for Core Complete as follows:
“Core Complete should be located in the RAP section with a group of 9TX , which is used for TSI and other Texas related tracking. The Label is TXCORECURR and if complete should be marked FULLCURRIC.
Example: RAP|9TX|TXCORECURR|FULLCURRIC|R|Y ”
Electronic transcripts should be marked in a uniform manner indicating completion of the associate degree in a similar standardized manner.
Reverse Transfer Data 2008 versus 2014
The following is historical reverse transfer data from 2008. At that time we only provided filtered transcripts once per year in the spring. This data will allow for some comparison of the potential for reverse transfer degrees in 2008 as opposed to 2014. The number of transcripts selected is less than 2008 primarily due to the higher residence hours required by the colleges to apply for associate degrees. In 2008 prior to dual credit and similar programs students tended to transfer from colleges with minimal hours, frequently 12 hours or less.
Today transfers frequently have in excess of 40 hours. Reverse transfer students typically graduate today within 0.1 GPApoints of native students. The graduation rate is statistically tied to the number of transfer hours. Students transferring with less than 20 hours have very poor retention and graduation rates. Students transferring with 40 or more hours are highly likely to graduate. As a result, SHSU has several million dollars invested in transfer scholarships using 45 hours as a minimum application criteria.
The following table represents the potential for listed colleges to award associate degrees via Reverse Transfer. Apparently a large number of students transferred to SHSU during this time period with less than 21 hours and left SHSU within a short period of time without a degree.
Note: 30/30/60 indicates they attempted at least 30 transfer hours at the college, have 30 or more hours from SHSU for a total of 60 or more hours.
Note: 21/3/60 indicates they attempted at least 21 transfer hours at the college, have 3 or more hours from SHSU for a total of 60 or more hours.
To award a degree SACS requires a minimum of 25% of course work from the colleges. Associated degrees are typically about 60 hours.
Fall 2008have been contacted.
College / 30/30/60 / 21/3/60Alvin / 19
Angelina / 39
Blinn / 221 / 288
Brazosport / 47
DCCCD / 25
Hill / 3
HCCS / 61
Lee / 20
Lon Morris / 0
Lone Star / 670
McLennan / 8
Navarro / 39
San Jacinto / 60
Trinity Valley / 28
Victoria / 4
Weatherford / 0
Compare to the number of available transcripts for reverse transfer in 2008 to the numbers available in fall 2015 on pages 2 and 3. The large increase is primarily due to dropping local graduation requirements including kinesiology. Reducing residence requirements (typically 20+) to the minimum SACS requirements ( 15 or 16) adds about 5% to 10% for most colleges.
Seamless Transfer Program Integrating
High Schools, Colleges, and Universities
This program allow students to complete the high school diploma, associate, and baccalaureate degrees in 6 years or less for most degree programs achieving monetary savings of 40% or more. Many students will be able to complete a master degree in one additional year and still enter the work force in less time and cost than required traditionally to complete the baccalaureate degree. These existing programs result in increased enrollment and retention for colleges.