StudentTracker 3.0 Expands Data Insights with New Learner Outcomes
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
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StudentTracker 3.0 Expands Data Insights with New Learner Outcomes
The National Student Clearinghouse’s upcoming release of StudentTracker 3.0, a service that allows high school leaders to gauge the college success of their alumni, introduces new learner outcomes to help users better understand the trajectory of their students, including:
- Dual enrollment: Gain valuable data on students enrolled in college coursework while attending high school with new dual enrollment data, which includes credentials earned during or shortly after leaving high school.
- Retention and Persistence: View outcome data on student persistence rates, revealing whether students remain at their initial institution or transfer elsewhere in their second year of college.
- Credential Information: See aggregate counts of credentials by postsecondary certificate, associate, bachelor’s, and advanced credentials, including breakouts by the highest credential and the total number of credentials earned.
By leveraging the in-depth data provided by StudentTracker 3.0 and its new learner outcomes, schools can gain a deeper understanding of their students’ academic pathways and make data-driven decisions to optimize student success beyond high school graduation.
“StudentTracker 3.0 will bring some insightful new changes,” according to Michele Gralak, Senior Product Manager, Learner Insights, who oversees StudentTracker 3.0. “It will help counselors and college and career readiness programs understand how to counsel their students more effectively.”
“StudentTracker 3.0 will bring some insightful new changes. It will help counselors and college and career readiness programs understand how to counsel their students more effectively.”
Michele Gralak
Senior Product Manager, Learner Insights
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