Using PDP to Enable Student Success
Transfer enrollment is making a comeback, surpassing 2020 figures. The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s fall 2024 Transfer Enrollment and Pathways report reveals that transfer enrollment, which comprises 13% of non-freshmen undergraduates, grew for the third straight year.
The ability to transfer between institutions provides students with greater flexibility in their postsecondary educational pathways. The Transfer Enrollment and Pathways report, which replaces the previous Transfer and Progress report series, finds that college transfer enrollment is now 7.9% greater than in the fall of 2020.
"The growth in transfers this fall is a further indication that students are adjusting postsecondary goals in response to changing education and labor market conditions," said Doug Shapiro, Executive Director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. “That’s good news, especially for those who are able to return from stopouts by finding colleges that better meet their needs.”
Nearly 500,000 students transferred from a two-year to a four-year institution this past fall, a number that is now comparable to fall 2020 (-2,300, -0.5%). Although this remains the most common pathway for transfer students, the share of all transfer students that move from a two-year to a four-year institution declined 3.5 percentage points from fall 2020 to fall 2024.
Additional report highlights include:
Community College Transfer Enrollment: This past fall, 390,000 students transferred into a community college, an increase of 13.5% from the fall of 2020. However, total community college enrollment still has not recovered from pandemic declines (-52,300, -1.5% from fall 2020).
Continuing Transfer Students: The fall of 2024 saw the second straight year of enrollment growth for continuing transfer students — those who were enrolled at a different institution in the spring or summer term immediately prior.
View the complete Transfer Enrollment and Pathways report.
"The growth in transfers this fall is a further indication that students are adjusting postsecondary goals in response to changing education and labor market conditions. That’s good news, especially for those who are able to return from stopouts by finding colleges that better meet their needs."
Doug Shapiro
Executive Director, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center
Additional Resources:
Using PDP to Enable Student Success
Higher education institutions constantly seek innovative ways to support student success in today’s rapidly changing educational landscape. Achieving the Dream (ATD) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping community colleges and other higher education institutions improve student success. One of the powerful tools in their arsenal is the National Student Clearinghouse’s Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP) service.
“Achieving the Dream is passionate about helping colleges use data more effectively to plan and assess their efforts to advance student success … Key to Achieving the Dream’s work with data is its relationship with the Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP),” wrote Dr. Lisa Stich, Director, PDP Program/Strategic Data & Technology Coach, Achieving the Dream, in her article “ATD’s New Advanced PDP Course: Offering Colleges a Deeper Dive into the Data.”
Here are ways colleges within ATD’s national network can leverage the PDP, which can serve as a model for other higher education institutions.
1. Data-Driven Decision-Making
Participating ATD institutions have access to a wealth of data through PDP that allows them to assess and improve student outcomes, such as data on student enrollment, course completion, graduation rates, and transfer rates.
2. Early Alert Systems
Higher education institutions can use PDP data to implement early alert systems that help identify students at risk of falling behind or dropping out. By monitoring student progress and intervening, when necessary, colleges can provide timely support to students facing academic or personal challenges, enabling them to stay on track.
3. Tracking Transfer and Completion Rates
Transfer and completion rates are crucial metrics for community colleges. PDP allows institutions to track how many students successfully transfer to four-year institutions or complete their degrees within a reasonable timeframe. This information helps colleges refine their transfer and degree completion programs and ensures that students are well-prepared for the next steps in their educational journeys.
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