The Enrollment Management Forum administered the Transfer Benchmarking Survey to flagship and more selective institutions. The survey gathered benchmarking data on enrollment divisions’ transfer goals, data, staff, articulation agreements, partnerships, and budget. This report aggregates the results of the 27 survey responses.
Report structure
This report contains four sections, outlined in more detail below.
Composition of transfer populations
This section gives context on the current state of transfer enrollments at flagship and more selective institutions, including:
- What types of institutions students transfer from
- The percentage of new enrollments each academic year that are transfer students
- Whether students transfer from a formalized bridge or transfer articulation program with another institution
- When transfer students start during the academic year
Transfer strategy and concerns
This section gives insight into survey participants’ goals for their transfer populations, along with strategy for and concerns about achieving those goals, including:
- Whether respondents plan to grow the transfer population
- The primary reasons survey participants are focusing on transfer students
- Concern about external forces that may challenge survey participants’ transfer goals
Staffing and budget
This section details the number of staff and the size of the budget devoted to transfer at present, and survey participants’ plans in the future, including:
- Current number of transfer-dedicated staff, and plans to increase or maintain the number of staff in the future
- Presence of a cross-functional enrollment management committee with a transfer charge and how often the committee advises institutional leadership
- The amount of financial aid given to transfer students
- Budget dedicated to transfer marketing and recruiting, and usage of third-party partnerships
Working with academic partners
This section examines availability of transfer credit estimates to prospective transfer students, as well as survey respondents’ satisfaction with academic affairs partnerships, including:
- Survey participants’ challenges with credit articulation
- Accessibility of transfer credit estimates and transfer credit review policies on survey participants’ websites
- When prospective transfer students receive official credit evaluation estimates
- The presence of a formal course equivalency policy at surveyed institutions
- How satisfied survey respondents are with their academic affairs partnerships