The growing number of reverse-transfer policies popping up at universities and colleges across the country seems to go hand in hand with national pushes to ease transfer pathways for students and to help more earn college degrees.
Reverse transfer gives community college students who have transferred to four-year institutions the ability to send credits back to their two-year institutions in order to receive associate degrees. Multiple national foundations have helped 15 states create initiatives to encourage reverse transfer programs, including efforts in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas. Last year the National Student Clearinghouse announced it would create a national automated system for exchanging reverse transfer student data.
The University of North Carolina system received a Lumina Foundation grant, for example, to develop a reverse transfer initiative. So far more than 1,400 transfer students from North Carolina's community colleges have earned their associate degrees through the process.
But some experts have raised questions about awarding associate degrees to students who are already on track to complete bachelor's degrees.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/11/reverse-transfer-plans-go-beyond-handing-out-degrees