New Data Shows Growth in Transfer Student Numbers
Credit: golero / E+ / Getty Images- New data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows the percentage of transfer students grew last year.
- The analysis shows that the number of transfers grew 4.4% between fall 2023 and fall 2024.
- Students transferring from two-year to four-year schools primarily drove the growth.
- Transfer students made up about 13% of non-first-year undergraduates in fall 2024.
New analysis from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows transfers between institutions have grown.
Compared to fall 2023, the number of students who transferred to a new institution in fall 2024 grew 4.4%. It’s the second straight year of continuing transfer enrollment growth, and the largest one-year growth since before the pandemic.
In fall 2024, almost 1.2 million students transferred to a new institution, compared to 7.9 million non-first-year students who remained at the same institution. Transfer students made up around 13% of non-first-year undergraduates in fall 2024.
Fall 2024 transfers represented 13.1% of continuing and returning undergraduate students, up from 11.9% in fall 2020. Continuing students enroll uninterrupted in undergraduate programs while returning students take a break from college and later return to enroll.
Students transferring from two-year to four-year institutions made up almost half of transfer enrollments in fall 2024. However, these numbers are still playing catch-up from pre-pandemic numbers, only starting to recover in 2023. The percentage of two-to-four-year transfers declined 3.5 percentage points between 2020 and 2024.
Despite community college enrollment not recovering to pre-pandemic levels (down 1.5% from fall 2020), these schools gained the most transfer student enrollment since 2020 across all institutions (up 13.5%).
Black (8.3%) and Hispanic (4.4%) students had the largest increase in transfer enrollment, while the number of white students transferring declined (-1.3%) in fall 2024.
Students transfer for many reasons, but many choose to change institutions because of cost.
Others transfer from a community college to obtain their bachelor’s degree. However, bachelor’s degrees at community colleges are becoming more standard.
And a report from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington shows that a bachelor’s degree from a community college is cheaper than one from a four-year institution — in some states less than half the price.
Many students find success in transferring from community colleges to elite universities, and the University of California even prioritizes community college transfers over other transfer students.
The National Student Clearinghouse data shows more transfer students at highly selective schools came from two-year schools (57.4%) than from four-year schools (42.6%). While the current numbers are closest to fall 2020 levels of any admissions selectivity category, fewer than 10% of two-to-four-year transfer students attend highly selective institutions.
A survey by Public Agenda revealed that regardless of political party affiliation, the majority of Americans want public policy that supports easier transfer between institutions. The survey also showed that 58% of respondents experienced some degree of credit loss during transfer, and 20% had to repeat a class because some of their credits did not transfer.
States that have recently made an effort to ease transfer policies include Illinois, Michigan, and North Carolina.