The opportunity to transfer from community college to a four-year university always existed, but a recent agreement between
Delta College and
Saginaw Valley State University intends to make it easier.
In the past, it wasn’t unusual for a student to transfer from Delta to university and need to take a basic class at the university to meet a requirement.
The Way Forward agreement between Delta and SVSU hopes to correct that issue, making the process of getting Bachelor’s Degree seamless and easier on the budget.
The Way Forward is a transfer pathway that allows students who complete an Associate’s Degree at Delta College to transfer directly to SVSU.
The two college presidents, Dr. Michael Gavin and Dr. George Grant Jr., agreed the process will help both schools promote student success.
“Helping our graduates obtain a Bachelor’s without losing credits, time or money, removes the barriers that often prevent students from achieving their goals,” said Gavin during the Aug. 8 signing.
Grant and Gavin each focused on the need to work together as a community to provide quality educational opportunities.
Dr. David Hopkins Jr., Dean of Transfer Programs and Online Learning at Delta College, knows firsthand the need for this type of agreement. He started out as a student at Delta College in the mid-1990s and transferred to Michigan State University.
“For us, it was a roulette. It's like, OK these institutions take this class but these other institutions don't. But it was just like academic roulette in terms of what might transfer and what doesn't.”
Back then, students relied on academic advisers to give them directions. Sometimes the path wasn’t so clear.
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Photo courtesy of Saginaw Valley State UniversitySVSU and Delta College recently formalized an agreement to make it easier for students to earn both Associate's and Bachelor's degrees here.For example, Hopkins says a student might enter Delta thinking she wants to transfer to Central Michigan University. During her second year at Delta, she decides to transfer to MSU instead. She was on track to meet CMU’s requirements. But when her plan changed, the requirements changed. Her Delta classes stayed the same.
“So there’s a lot less of that,” he says about The Way Forward agreement.
There also is more to the plan.
Alongside the academic advisers, Delta has put in place transfer guides – people who work with SVSU and Delta to make sure all of the classes line up for a given major.
“Then when they continue on at SVSU they’ll have all those courses mapped out for them, so they’ll graduate with their Bachelor’s Degree from SVSU.”
The benefit to the students is greater than just saving money, adds Hopkins. They also save time. Before, a student could take a 15-week class at Delta and then arrive at SVSU to find SVSU doesn’t require it. Instead, SVSU requires a different class that the student wasn’t expecting.
“You lose all that time, all your study time because you have to take something else. You hate to lose that time.”
Time is something many students at Delta can’t afford. Many Delta students work full-time and go to college part-time. “For them, it’s not just losing a class, it could be a whole semester if that’s the only class they took.”
Hopkins says he doesn’t want to see students lose academically because of a difficult transfer process or because of roadblocks put in place by universities, and this is one way to clear a path.
Life will still get in the way sometimes, but Hopkins says the goal is to “help them reach their goal of earning an Associate’s Degree or Bachelor’s Degree – I think that’s really important.”
J.J. Boehm, Executive Director of University Communications at SVSU, agrees.
“As we see it, this agreement empowers students to make decisions that allow them to complete their desired SVSU degree in the most efficient manner possible,” Boehm says.
Another part of the agreement is the Reverse Transfer Process, which allows students who started out at Delta but didn’t complete an Associate’s Degree to receive it even years after completing their degree at SVSU.
In the reverse transfer, credits received at the university can be transferred back to Delta College to be applied toward a degree there, says Boehm.
“For a student who’s working their way through school, that can be a big deal, because it can open better employment opportunities while they work toward their Bachelor’s Degree.”
For former Delta students who went on to complete a Bachelor’s Degree, having those credits applied to an Associate’s Degree may fill an educational gap.
“SVSU is now going to send those transcripts back to Delta and then we’re able to award an Associate’s Degree to that student,” says Hopkins.
The reverse transfer agreement works with other universities as well, but is automatic with SVSU.
Ultimately, the goal is to improve outcomes for students, but Hopkins and Boehm say it is also improving the relationships between the schools.
“So many of our students go there, so being able to improve that relationship is not only going to benefit both institutions but everybody in the community and the Great Lakes Bay Region,” Hopekins says.
Boehm echoes that.
“This latest agreement extends and enhances our partnership with Delta College, which has been SVSU’s number one transfer partner for many years,” Boehm says. “We appreciate the collaboration. We hear from employers every day whose success depends on more local graduates. They have told us this latest agreement is welcome news.”
Having students be as prepared as possible for the working world is the goal of both schools, and The Way Forward hopes to unlock doors for them.
“We are happy to just work together and ultimately to do what’s best for students in our community,” says Hopkins.