Students from three Connecticut community colleges who transfer to Western Connecticut State University will benefit from a new agreement that puts their college degrees within closer reach.
Western entered into agreements with Housatonic Community College, Norwalk Community College and Naugatuck Valley Community College to enable Western students who began their college studies at a participating institution to apply course credits earned at Western toward completion of an associate degree awarded by the community college they attended.
The reverse transfer agreements are patterned on similar arrangements between two-year and four-year higher education institutions in several states including Texas, Michigan and Kentucky. They are designed to offer a pathway for students who transfer from a community college before graduation to complete credits for an associate degree even as they work toward attainment of a baccalaureate degree at Western.
“This is a win-win situation,” Western Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Jane McBride Gates observed. “These agreements will assist the community colleges in increasing their graduation rates. For the student, they will provide an important validation that he or she can successfully complete the requirements to earn an associate degree, which in turn will increase the likelihood that the student will continue on at Western to graduate with a baccalaureate degree.”
Gates noted the reverse transfer program reflects an awareness at Western that the profile of university enrollment today is far more diverse, with a dramatic rise in the number of students who do not fit the traditional model of entering college directly after high school graduation to pursue a bachelor’s degree. She said that universities in the past have not paid sufficient attention to the special needs of students who represent the first generation in their families to pursue a college education.