I've been following HB 1706, a bill designed to let students transfer credits more easily between state colleges and universities, introduced by Rep. Josh Shapiro. A lengthier post on this topic is here.
HARRISBURG, April 4 – State Rep. Josh Shapiro, D-Montgomery, inserted an amendment to the state budget bill (H. B. 2499) that would appropriate $400,000 to develop a system where college credits would transfer seamlessly from one state-owned college or university to another. The amendment was adopted today by a 196-0 vote.
“The way things are now, your college credits are not guaranteed to be 100 percent transferable. That means students wishing to transfer from one school to another may be forced to retake classes and pay more money. I call that a ‘tuition tax’ and it’s unfair,” Shapiro said.
The $400,000 would be used to create the necessary staffing, resources and technology to bring the 32 state colleges and universities in the state system together to craft a statewide articulation agreement.
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I'm not sure I agree with this bill. Colleges make these decisions solely on the academic merit of the individual course in question. Why change that system? You can't create a blanket guarantee that courses are of the same caliber across the state schools (or any school), so this law circumvents a process which worked just fine before.
Getting courses denied transfer credits is quite a rare instance.
Greg,
It gets more complext than that. Some 2 year schools have articulation agreements with nearby 4 year schools that classes will transfer but that doesn't help with students wanting to go farther afield. Almost all colleges teach the dreaded freshman English and, really, why shouldn't such a basic class transfer? Intro to Psych? If the core content of classes like this aren't uniform then how prepared are the students going to be to go into that field? Where it becomes really tricky is for students who had to leave college for one reason or another and then want to go back (I linked to an article on this in my longer post). One quick way to increase the number of college educated people in a region (which Philly wants and needs to do) is to encourage those who did not finish to go back. One big roadblock to this is the acceptability of their older credits. Granted, computer science courses from 5 years ago are obselete, but what about history or sociology? Someone who is looking at the prospect of starting over is more likely to decide not to go back than someone who can use at least some of their old credits.
Certainly some schools specialize in particular fields and they are probably going to be pickier about what they accept. But shouldn't an accredited criminal justice degree from any state school in PA guarantee some acceptable level of skills? Nursing? A teaching certificate?
You shouldn't be able to transfer into to a school the last semester of your senior year, but most introductory courses should be transferable -- I agree with Shapiro on this.
It may also be an outgrowth of standarized testing in public schools. Applying the same thought to colleges and universities.
Getting courses transferred is a hassle right now unless there are agreements between schools. This would make it easier.
Good points, though I would still argue that this takes some control away from teachers.
having never tranfered a credit in my life (I did the straight ahead four years at one school and 18 months for my grad degree), who actually makes these decisions? Are they made by the registrar's office or by the department? Both? None?
In either case, this would apply to our state schools, which, from what I know, try to have some uniformity in curriculum amongst the majors. If this is only about our state schools, the GA has the authority, and I would say the obligation, to dictate terms of tranfer within that system. Tranfering from Nova to Kutztown, however, wouldn't seem to fit into this legislation.
It is just state schools. And I think the decisions are often made by the registrar or an assitant dean of some kind, depending on the size of the school. I suppose the department gets involved if it is an upper level or very specific class. I do know that one issue coming up in the past few years is whether or not American Sign Language classes count as a foreign language. I know someone who teaches this and at some schools it is accepted as a foreign language and at others it isn't. That isn't a standard example (as Freshman English would be) but gives an idea of the things that come up.
Like you, I went to one school for each degree but knew a lot of people who took some classes at two year schools and then transferred or moved mid-degree to follow a spouse or a job transfer and ended up having up to go an extra year because things didn't transfer.
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