Hispanic Heritage Month: Recognizing & Supporting Student Achievement
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:
Hispanic Heritage Month: Recognizing & Supporting Student Achievement
As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, from September 15 to October 15, the National Student Clearinghouse recognizes Hispanic students’ essential contributions and achievements in higher education.
Here are some recent insights on Hispanic students in higher education from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center:
A Greater Percentage of Hispanic Students are Continuing Past their Freshman Year: Our most recent Persistence and Retention report—persistence referring to students returning to college at any institution for a second year, and retention capturing returns to the same institution—revealed a year-over-year increase in Hispanic students continuing their pursuit of higher education, increasing 0.5% from fall 2021 to fall 2022.
However, there is still work to be done. Institutions continue to retain Hispanic students — along with Black and Native American students — at rates significantly below the national rate (63.6%, 56.6%, and 52.8%, respectively, compared to 68.2% nationally). Moreover, there was more muted growth in retention rates for Hispanic students who entered college in fall 2022 compared to gains nationally. This represents a reversal of the pattern over the previous academic year, when Hispanic students’ retention rate increase outpaced the growth of the national rate.
More Hispanic Students are Re-Enrolling After Previously Stopping Out: The June 2024 Some College, No Credential report measured the number of students “stopping out” of college without a credential as of July 31, 2022. Hispanic students comprised 24.4% of the “some college, no credential” (SCNC) population among those who entered in 2013 or later, compared to 21.5% of all enrolled undergrads in the 2022-23 academic year. The results of students who re-engaged with postsecondary education in 2022-23 academic year uncovered some promising news for Hispanic students. There were higher rates of Hispanic re-enrollment in the 2022-23 academic year, reversing declines from the previous year. The report also found a higher share of Hispanic SCNC students re-enrolling in associate degree programs (60.7%) than all other reported racial and ethnic groups.
Number of Hispanic Students Completing Undergraduate Degrees has Grown by Nearly Half Since 2016: In the 2022-2023 academic year, over 568,000 Hispanic students earned their undergraduate credential, as reported in the April 2024 Undergraduate Degree Earners report. While that is a 1% decrease from the previous academic year, the number of Hispanic completers grew in each of the previous seven years before that. In fact, the number of Hispanic undergraduate completers per year grew 46% from the 2015-2016 to the 2022-2023 academic year.
Tools for Institutions: The Clearinghouse has tools to help institutions make data-driven, student-centered decisions to improve learner outcomes. With our tools for secondary and postsecondary educators and educational organizations, including StudentTracker and the Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP), academic leaders can harness the power of our unique national student data resources to understand learner pathways and outcomes and help learners succeed. In addition, the Clearinghouse offers custom research services to help address specific questions, providing insights that are relevant and actionable.
During this Hispanic Heritage Month, let’s honor the achievements of Hispanic students in higher education and celebrate the invaluable contributions of Hispanic educators who are shaping a more inclusive and equitable learning environment for all students.
