Unfavorable experiences with attempting to switch credit towards a school credential are prevalent amongst American adults, in response to a new survey from the analysis group Public Agenda, the upper schooling consulting agency Sova and the Past Switch Coverage Advisory Board.
Fielded final Could, the survey of roughly 3,000 individuals discovered that just about 40 p.c of respondents had beforehand tried to switch credit towards a postsecondary credential. Greater than half of those that sought to switch (56 p.c) tried to switch credit towards a bachelor’s diploma and 1 / 4 towards an affiliate diploma, whereas the remainder pursued credit score switch towards certificates packages or different varieties of credentials. Many of the credit respondents sought to switch have been from group schools, bachelor’s diploma packages, work expertise or dual-enrollment lessons, although some additionally tried to switch credit from vocational colleges and varied varieties of microcredentials.
Greater than half of respondents who tried a switch reported dropping at the least some credit within the course of; 34 p.c reported “most” of their credit have been accepted, whereas 19 p.c mentioned “few” have been accepted and 5 p.c mentioned none of their credit transferred. In the meantime, a fifth of respondents who tried to switch credit needed to repeat lessons they’d already taken, and 16 p.c reported they didn’t pursue a postsecondary credential as a result of the switch course of was too difficult. Probably the most cited cause for switch troubles was that faculties didn’t settle for credit, together with credit score for work expertise and prior studying.
“Unfavorable experiences with credit score switch reinforce the notion that huge establishments don’t care about common individuals, a key ingredient of the problem dealing with our democracy,” Andrew Seligsohn, president of Public Agenda, mentioned in a press launch. “By shining a light-weight on each the individuals and the method, we will higher perceive what works—in addition to what doesn’t—so we will enhance the system for everyone.”
The survey additionally discovered widespread help amongst People throughout the political spectrum for insurance policies designed to enhance the credit-transfer course of, together with giving college students easy accessibility to transcripts and public databases with universities’ switch data.
“On this survey we additionally see a supply for optimism: the overwhelming majority of People agree that college students shouldn’t be on their very own to determine this out,” Lara Couturier, a accomplice at Sova, mentioned within the launch. “In an more and more polarized setting, there may be sturdy consensus to maneuver ahead wise reforms that assist extra learners attain completion and ship on the worth proposition of upper schooling.”
