Transfer success is essential to Kentucky’s educational attainment goal of 60% of the population with a postsecondary credential or degree by 2030.

A transfer has multiple benefits as it helps students save and later earn more money, but too few transfer-aspiring students reach their goal of a bachelor’s degree. In 2021, nearly 30,000 students were on a transfer pathway, and 77% (23,100) of those students will not transfer by 2026-27. Meanwhile, 23% of the 30,000 students will transfer to the university.

Students face many obstacles when transferring. Nationally, transfers declined 8% from 2020-21, but in Kentucky, transfers rose by 2%. That said, transfer success is an equity issue with white students twice as likely to transfer as Black and Hispanic students. Similarly, students from families with higher incomes are twice as likely to transfer as students from families with lower incomes.

Connecting the path from our community colleges to universities is vital to transfer success. Kentucky’s visions for transfer include centering students’ needs above all, prioritizing efforts to strengthen institutional collaboration, and removing obstacles to seamless transfers while maximizing the applicability of credits toward programs of study.