Over the past few years, federal and state governments, higher education institutions and organizations have adopted a college completion agenda┬" into their policies. Many of these policies targeted college access and readiness and the creation of quality degree programs that address high-demand labor areas. The Institute of Higher Education Policy (IHEP) in partnership with the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) instead sought to focus their efforts on raising completion rates by addressing the needs of students who have invested time and money on associate or bachelor˜s degrees, but left without completing their degree programs. Although these near completers┬" have already acquired most skills and knowledge represented in a college degree, they are losing out on significant labor market advantages associated with college credentials. Employers and higher education institutions are also missing out by not taking advantage of these near completers' skills.
Project Win-Win is an three-year initiative that works with 64 colleges and universities in nine states (Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia and Wisconsin) to identify and award associate degrees retroactively to eligible students who have completed the credit, GPA and residency requirements to earn the degree.
Participating community colleges and four-year institutions conducted a database analysis of student status and matching records against state and National Student Clearinghouse data to eliminate students who have transferred and are learning at another institution or earned degrees elsewhere. Remaining students were audited to determine if they were eligible for the award of associate degrees or close to completion. Institutions then located and contacted the near completers and awarded eligible students with an associate degree. Students with less than 15 credits left toward an associate degree would be provided with a roadmap to completion.
The Project Win-Win initiative assisted over 4,200 students in earning their associates degrees and over 800 potential students in returning to school to complete their degrees. If expanded to all associate degree-awarding two-year and four-year institutions, this process would yield a 15 to 16 percent increase in the number of associate degrees awarded.
Lessons from Project Win-Win
We had the chance to talk with AACRAO member Dan Kellogg, Registrar at the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point, about his institution's experience with Project Win-Win. The University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point is a four-year institution that can also award associate degrees. During Project Win-Win, Kellogg looked at student records from fall 2000 to spring 2010 to locate students who were both eligible for an associate degree and those who met the criteria for near completers. A challenge that Kellogg faced during the study was locating eligible students; over that ten year period many students underwent name and address changes. Kellogg even found some students who left UW at Stevens Point still owing money to the institution. At the end of the project in May 2012, Kellogg's institution awarded 167 associate degrees.
Kellogg advises both community colleges and four-year institutions to use the project as a chance to rework their policies for awarding degrees to eligible candidates. All campuses need to take a close look and reevaluate their policies for earning an associate degree and determine if they have created requirements that actually hinder the process for students that stop-out or transfer,┬" says Kellogg.
This project was looking back retroactively,┬" Kellogg says. He is hopeful that his experience from Project Win-Win can result in a more proactive approach for students about to transfer out of his institution. How could we make this process beneficial for the student and improve our retention efforts? We should do a degree audit for [students about to transfer] and see if that student is eligible for an associate degree. This could save that transfer institution with course shortages and potential bottlenecks.┬"
Increasing state-wide and national pathways to reverse transfer
Drawing from the successes of Project Win-Win, policymakers and organizations are researching state-wide and nation-wide policies to elevate near completion and reverse transfer efforts. AACRAO member Adrian Cornelius, University Registrar at the University of Maryland at College Park, spoke with us about Project Win-Win and how it is is aligned with other projects of this nature, including a proposal being developed by the Association of American Universities (AAU) Registrar's Group.
"All states are looking at how they can best capitalize on their graduation rates. And I think [Project Win-Win] was a pretty successful research project on a national scale that can certainly serve as a framework for developing reverse transfer and completion models. Institutions, systems and even states do not have to be constantly reinventing the wheel, remarked Cornelius. ┬"One thing that struck me was the flexibility of the program that was applied. All institutions reported their successes while implementing the program in a way that meets institutional needs and state policies, so they didn't necessarily change their policies and practices in significant ways."
Registrars at the AAU Schools are exploring approaches for a nationwide reverse transfer project in which four-year institutions may transfer a student's credits back to the student's two-year institution using infrastructure provided by the National Student Clearinghouse. Cornelius is confident in the positive effects that would occur by strengthening reverse transfer and near completion policies through AAU Registrars Group project and IHEP's initiative.
“I actually like the term ‘Project Win-Win’ because everyone‘s a winner," Cornelius said. "Most likely, having an associate degree will give students the opportunity to earn higher salaries. So the student wins. The institution wins because it can increase its graduation rate. Especially now, with the performance-based budgeting formula that many states are beginning to enact, that’s a win-win for the institutions. The state, the workforce…everyone's a winner.”