Latest PDP Improvements Deliver a Better User Experience & More
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:
Latest PDP Improvements Deliver a Better User Experience & More
The Postsecondary Data Partnership (PDP) is better than ever with major improvements to its look-and-feel and functionality to enhance your experience, as well as increased support. As soon as you log on to the PDP, you are presented with a new landing page where you can access your dashboards and submissions, the Student Insights Dashboard, and your accounts and settings.
Among the user experience enhancements you’ll appreciate are:
- Intuitive interface design that delivers consistency across all areas of PDP, including dashboards
- Faster dashboard load times
- Easier data sharing with third parties and/or opting into the Student Insights Dashboard through our secure portal
We’ve also provided more support to help you get the most out of PDP, including:
- New PDP account managers to assist with onboarding and provide ongoing support
- Expanded PDP knowledge base with more case studies and tutorials
- Improved documentation
- Research question-based videos produced with the Association for Institutional Research (AIR)
In our next post, we’ll cover the latest improvements to PDP’s data and insights.
