A descriptive study of community college transfers in engineering and computer science in Texas

Abstract

Community colleges are an increasingly popular route towards a baccalaureate degree, offering open enrollment policies, flexible schedules, and opportunities to address gaps in academic preparation. Unfortunately, research has found that few students successfully transfer to a four-year university to complete their degrees. There is also a lack of disaggregated data on students who begin their engineering or computer science (ECS) studies at a community college with the intention to transfer. This paper focuses on a descriptive study of the transfer success of students from 10 years of first-time-in-college cohorts who declared an ECS major in Texas. Researchers analyzed enrollments, transfers, persistence, and baccalaureate completion rates of students in public two-year and four-year colleges using data from the Texas Education Research Center. The data show that, despite efforts to improve transfer success and increase diversity in STEM, we have not seen significant gains in successful transfer and baccalaureate degree completion among students who begin their ECS studies at a two-year college.