What Does the Literature Say about Underserved Transfer Students?

• In Event: No Simple Solutions: Using Equity to Frame Research on High Performing Transfer Partnerships

Abstract

This paper reviews the literature on underserved transfer students to inform future transfer research and reform that seeks to integrate an equity lens. To this end, Yeh summarizes what we know about underserved transfer students, what strategies we understand have been implemented to improve their baccalaureate completion, and what gaps in the literature remain most problematic from an equity perspective. This paper also scrutinizes ways research reinforces and reframes deficit perspectives applied to underserved students and their experiences with transfer. it uses the literature to describe what happens to underserved students after they transfer, and what factors and strategies promote baccalaureate completion. Although researchers have examined this topic, the overwhelming majority of this work resides in unpublished dissertations and theses. Broadly speaking, many of the solutions that have been implemented to increase transfer rates and improve completion outcomes involve statewide policies directed towards credit transferability and articulation agreements. Institutional strategies more often include modifying advising practice or creating programs that target transfer students. However, very little is known about how state-level policies, as well as institutional interventions impact underserved students specifically.

Author

• Theresa Yeh, University of Washington