In 2014, a new law was created that instructed the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system to develop multi-campus articulation agreements to address student transfer. Utilizing Minnesota State’s Board of Trustees’ initiative Charting the Future, the legislation was designed to make transfer between two and four-year institutions less complex, costly, and confusing.
A year later, the Minnesota State Board of Trustees returned to the legislature Transfer Pathways for Baccalaureate Completion, a 20-page document detailing how the system would create and implement Transfer Pathways. Divided into six phases over a three-year period (2015 – 2018), Transfer Pathways aimed to streamline transfer for 25 to 30 of the system’s most popular baccalaureate programs.
Focused first on psychology, biology, business, and theatre, Phase 1 of Transfer Pathways piloted programs required pre-requisite coursework and maintained program-specific accreditation requirements. As Transfer Pathways continue, LeadMN is vested in timely implementation, readily available resources, and changes communicated to student and faculty alike.
This summer, LeadMN will rollout a website dedicated to monitoring Transfer Pathways’ progress. The website will feature a pathway tracker to monitor programs campus by campus, student stories highlighting the impact of transfer on a student’s plan, and a regulator to help resolve problems students and faculty encounter with transfer.
If you have any questions regarding Transfer Pathways, contact LeadMN Policy Manager Marco Lanz at mlanz@leadmn.org.