North Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities (NCICU) has received a grant to create an online portal that will ease the process of transferring from a community college to a private college in North Carolina. The project has been funded through a National Venture Fund grant from the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) which provided $25,000 and has been matched by $25,000 raised from NCICU donors.
The North Carolina College Completion Portal (NCCCP) will build upon the articulation agreement between NCICU and the community college system by creating a transfer portal that will provide information about course equivalencies between the two systems.
“This grant represents one of several collaborations with the North Carolina Community College System designed to streamline access and increase educational attainment for transfer students,” said NCICU President A. Hope Williams.
According to a study by the Community College Research Center, as many as 80 percent of community college students want to transfer, however only 14 percent of those students earned a bachelor’s degree within six years. Research has shown the challenge lies in the process of transferring from a community college to a four-year college. Too often, students take courses at community colleges that do not count toward their major when transferred – they are only counted as elective courses. When the portal is completed, the transfer process will be automated so students can see instantly how the credits they have earned will transfer to one of NCICU’s 36 campuses. The portal is expected to be operational by January 2019.
“This portal will be a useful tool for community college students who plan to transfer to a private four-year college in North Carolina,” said NCCCS Acting President Jennifer Haygood. “The portal dovetails nicely with the articulation agreements between our system and NCICU campuses.”
“The Council of Independent Colleges is proud to support NCICU and its member colleges through CIC’s National Venture Fund grant program,” said Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges. “Designed to support collaborative approaches to solving the major issues faced by private colleges, as well as to strengthen the role of State Councils, projects coordinated under this initiative have had a tangible impact on the strengthening of independent colleges and universities for 18 years.”
“We are deeply grateful to the Council of Independent Colleges for the opportunity to develop this project with the goal that the process can be replicated in other states,” President Williams stated.
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