College Transfer Enrollment Grew by 5.3% in the Fall of 2023
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:
College Transfer Enrollment Grew by 5.3% in the Fall of 2023
Transfer enrollment, which represents 13.2% of non-freshman undergraduates, grew 5.3% in fall 2023 compared to the previous year, according to the most recent Transfer and Progress report. Upward transfers drove the increase, with students who transferred from two-year to four-year institutions increasing by 7.7%, while lateral transfers grew by 4.3%.
“Students are on the move again, and this is good news,” said Doug Shapiro, Executive Director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. “More community college students entering bachelor’s programs this fall means greater access to four-year degrees, especially for those from lower-income backgrounds.”
The Research Center’s Transfer and Progress report provides data on undergraduate transfer enrollment and pathways and the mobility and progress of pandemic-impacted community college starters. The report describes the enrollment, demographic characteristics, and transfer behaviors of 11.7 million undergraduate students in fall 2023 from a three-year fixed panel of institutions that consistently reported data from fall 2021 to 2023. Highlights include:
- Disadvantaged students, including those from lower-income backgrounds, Black and Hispanic groups, and from rural community colleges, saw larger increases in transfer enrollment.
- Returning students are increasingly attending a different institution from where they last enrolled (51.2% of returning students are transfers this year, up from 44.4% in 2021). The most frequent destinations for these students were community colleges (+6.0%), primarily online institutions (+12.6%), and private for-profit four-year institutions (+20.7%).
- Upward transfers increased the most at very competitive and highly selective institutions (+13.1% and +7.8%, respectively). Lateral four-year transfers made the largest gains among less selective institutions (+10.8%).
For the complete Transfer and Progress report, including change of majors and breakdown by state, and a deeper dive into annual transfer-out rates and six-year outcomes for community college entering cohorts over time, visit nscresearchcenter.org/transfer-and-progress.
“Students are on the move again, and this is good news. More community college students entering bachelor’s programs this fall means greater access to four-year degrees, especially for those from lower-income backgrounds.”
Doug Shapiro
Executive Director, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center
Additional Resources: