Spoon River College will celebrate National Transfer Student Week October 21-25. NTSW is recognized every third week in October as a way to highlight the success of transfer students, as well as to continue to improve the transfer process for students.
For bachelor degree seeking students, the required curriculum for the first two years is the same regardless of where they are taken, and students often complete those first two years at a community college before transferring to a four-year university.
“Starting at a community college is a smart move financially for students; tuition is less and the need for student loans is reduced. It can also be less overwhelming than starting at a bigger institution,” said Holly Norton, vice president of educational and student services at Spoon River College.
Spoon River College participates in the Illinois Articulation Initiative (IAI), a statewide agreement that allows transfer of the completed Illinois General Education Core Curriculum between participating institutions. Completion of that curriculum at any participating college or university in Illinois assures transferring students that lower-division general education requirements for an associate or bachelor’s degree have been satisfied.
Spoon River College also partners with Southern Illinois University Carbondale to offer the Saluki Step Ahead program, which enables SRC students with an associate degree to continue at SIU and earn their bachelor’s degrees completely online in a number of programs, including business administration, RN to BSN, and accounting.
In addition, SRC and Western Illinois University are partners in the Aspen-AASCU Transfer Student Success Intensive, a year-long study to analyze the transfer process and identify the successes and barriers of transferring.
According to the Illinois Board of Education, Illinois not only leads the nation in bachelor degree completion rates (53.8%) among community college students who transfer to four-year colleges, it has also exceeded the national average of 42.2%.