Transferring College Credits Is Still Hard

In the post-pandemic age, the college world has witnessed a resurgence in students seeking to transfer their credits to other institutions. After an alarming 14-percent drop in transfer enrollment between 2020 and 2022, rates climbed 5.3 percent in fall 2023 and 4.5 percent in fall 2024. Although these findings may bring a sigh of relief from those who cheer academic flexibility, they veil an unavoidable reality: Transferring credits is still hard.

According to a recent survey from Public Agenda and Sova, 24 percent of students “who have tried to transfer credits [said] they were able to transfer only a few or none of the credits they earned.” Thirty-seven percent of students found “the process of trying to transfer credits to be difficult.” Clearly, credit transferring is still an issue in higher education, subtly chipping away at the ability of some students to finish their degrees.

Potential transfer students must be equipped to spot landmines across the process. As Virgil once remarked, “Happy is he who has learned the causes of things.” If the worst of credit-transferring woes did not entail repaying for lost credits with extra time and money, perhaps affected students would feel the same way about their additional instruction. As things stand, however, the best students can hope for is that higher-ed reformers continue to exert pressure on recalcitrant institutions. As Lara Couturier, a partner at Sova, recently stated, “There is strong consensus to move forward sensible reforms that help more learners reach completion and deliver on the value proposition of a higher education.”

The real need in the transfer-credit-reform universe is for political settlements that force institutions to accept one another’s coursework. To begin with, potential transfer students must be equipped to spot landmines across the transfer process. One such landmine is the tendency of students to forgo advising on such matters. According to a 2023 Student Voice survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed, only approximately half of students have received guidance and review for their course sequence to graduate on time. With only roughly two in 10 students admitting that “they were required to meet with their adviser once,” there is likely no reason to suggest that these numbers will improve on their own. Whether it is true that more students should reach out to advisers for transfer-credit help, or that more students should be contacted by advisers, or simply both, institutions must ensure that students can access untainted transfer information that will help reduce the likelihood of repeat classes, saving each student valuable time and money in pursuit of his or her degree.

Yet the real need in the transfer-credit-reform universe is for political settlements that force institutions to accept one another’s coursework. North Carolina, for instance, has a Comprehensive Articulation Agreement (CAA) that not only governs the transfer of credits between the state’s community colleges and public universities but nudges community-college students to “declare their planned transfer major prior to completing 30 hours of coursework.” This promotes a clear course of action, transforming a potentially grim reality of wasted funds into one of money well spent. Given that the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research found that North Carolina’s “CAA increased the likelihood of bachelor’s degree completion between 5-13% among transfer students after the CAA revisions,” the agreement seems to be working here.

Sadly, not every state has an equivalent arrangement. Creating one should be the first order of business for reformers eager to ease the process for transfer students.

Matthew Rohl is a student at Thales College and a 2025 Martin Center intern.