Exploring Credit Loss for Engineering Transfer Students

One of the issues at the heart of transfer is the mobility of credits across institutions—moving credits from one institution to another is a crucial process for the transfer pathway to be a viable option. Credit loss is a critical issue for transfer students enrolled in highly sequential degrees, such as engineering. A student could be set back a year or more if they miss one required prerequisite course at the time of transfer. Determining who experiences credit loss in engineering could help ease the transfer process, improve graduation rates, and broaden participation in engineering since the transfer pathway has been identified as a key national strategy to diversify the field. This study examines credit loss experienced by engineering transfer students at Virginia Tech from 2009 to 2018 and compares this loss across both student and institutional characteristics. We found that credit loss differed across both sending institutions and engineering disciplines. The findings from this paper can be used to inform advisors, faculty, administrators, and policymakers about the role of credit loss in the engineering transfer process. This research can provide information necessary to inform degree pathways, articulation agreements, and policies that promote successful transfer and degree completion. Additionally, we provide examples of informed practices such as data and faculty sharing between 2- and 4- year institutions to improve the transfer pathway and reduce credit loss. We hope the example institutional case from this paper can inspire similar analyses at other institutions that seek to improve the transfer experience.