As a champion for the transformational power of a liberal arts education, the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) has long aimed to make independent colleges and universities accessible and welcoming for all students, including community college students who wish to transfer to complete a baccalaureate degree. Following the launch of a successful transfer project in North Carolina in 2019, CIC selected Ohio for the second phase of its efforts and earned funding in 2021 to undertake the new transfer initiative from the Teagle Foundation and Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.
The Ohio Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts project was designed to facilitate the transfer of students from community colleges to independent four-year institutions to complete baccalaureate degrees in liberal arts disciplines. CIC, in partnership with the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges (OFIC), formed the Ohio Consortium for Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts, a group of 11 community colleges and 14 independent four-year colleges and universities committed to creating transfer-ready institutions and a more seamless transfer experience for community college students. Between 2021 and 2025, the Consortium members drew on well-established individual relationships between independent colleges and community colleges in Ohio, as well as the state’s existing infrastructure for transferring into public institutions, to adopt the pathways model for three majors and implement new or revised policies and practices that would prioritize student success, academic consistency, and financial transparency.
Drawing on the existing framework created by the Ohio Department of Higher Education (ODHE) for transfer between community colleges and public four-year institutions in Ohio, the Consortium built three discipline-specific pathways in biology, psychology, and English. These new pathways were developed to mirror the Ohio Guaranteed Transfer Pathways (OGTPs) designed by ODHE, so students who follow the prescribed tracks can enter receiving four-year institutions as juniors and complete their bachelor’s degrees in two years. The Consortium also addressed the challenge of uneven transfer acceptance policies around general education requirements, pushing for the adoption of the Ohio Transfer 36 (OT36) across all independent colleges and universities in the Consortium. Previously called the Ohio Transfer Module, OT36 is a set of general education requirements across 36 semester hours that was designed by ODHE to transfer among any of Ohio’s public institutions of higher education. By December 2022, all independent four-year institutions in the Consortium had committed to recognizing OT36, ensuring that transfer students entering with OT36 credits could skip redundant lower-level requirements and proceed with upper-division coursework, with several Consortium members stipulating required institution-specific “signature courses.”
To ensure the success of the pathway model they had adopted, Consortium members signed a pledge to take steps that would strengthen the transfer culture on each campus and between institutions. In its later phases, the Consortium expanded its outreach from faculty and senior academic administrators to ensure that all campus offices with staff who interacted with community college transfer students—e.g., the office of the registrar, admissions, financial aid, and student affairs—were well informed about the pathways and understood the imperative for a supportive framework for community college students during and following the transfer process. Individually and collectively, campuses strategized effective ways to publicize the pathways and to keep them up to date, investigated best practices for advising transfer students, and reexamined financial aid options that would facilitate baccalaureate-degree completion for these students. The Consortium also explored the implementation of reverse transfer agreements. Through this approach, community college students who transfer without an associate’s degree could retroactively earn that credential once they completed the necessary coursework at their four-year institution. Although the initiatives undertaken to improve transfer culture have varied widely among the Consortium institutions, the project has heightened understanding of the challenges transfer presents for community college students, created new transfer champions and a better-integrated approach on many of the four-year campuses, and led to some significant success stories at individual institutions.
In summary, the Ohio Consortium for Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts elevated collaboration between community colleges and independent four-year colleges and universities in Ohio, and it accomplished its goal of simplifying and strengthening transfer opportunities for Ohio’s community college students seeking a baccalaureate degree in the liberal arts.