Exploring Credit Loss for Engineering Transfer Students

Authors

Amy J. Richardson, Virginia TechFollow
David B. Knight, Virginia TechFollow

Author Bio(s)

Amy Richardson is a Postdoc at Virginia Tech in Engineering Education. Prior to this position, she was an associate professor at Northern Virginia Community College for 6 years. She is interested in broadening participation in engineering through the transfer pathway. David B. Knight is a Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech and a Special Assistant to the Dean for Strategic Plan Implementation. His research tends to be at the macro-scale, focused on a systems-level perspective of how engineering education can become more effective, efficient, and inclusive, tends to be data-driven by leveraging large-scale institutional, state, or national data sets, and considers the intersection between policy and organizational contexts.

Abstract

One of the issues at the heart of transfer is the mobility of credits across institutions—moving credits from one institution to another is a crucial process for the transfer pathway to be a viable option. Credit loss is a critical issue for transfer students enrolled in highly sequential degrees, such as engineering. A student could be set back a year or more if they miss one required prerequisite course at the time of transfer. Determining who experiences credit loss in engineering could help ease the transfer process, improve graduation rates, and broaden participation in engineering since the transfer pathway has been identified as a key national strategy to diversify the field. This study examines credit loss experienced by engineering transfer students at Virginia Tech from 2009 to 2018 and compares this loss across both student and institutional characteristics. We found that credit loss differed across both sending institutions and engineering disciplines. The findings from this paper can be used to inform advisors, faculty, administrators, and policymakers about the role of credit loss in the engineering transfer process. This research can provide information necessary to inform degree pathways, articulation agreements, and policies that promote successful transfer and degree completion. Additionally, we provide examples of informed practices such as data and faculty sharing between 2- and 4- year institutions to improve the transfer pathway and reduce credit loss. We hope the example institutional case from this paper can inspire similar analyses at other institutions that seek to improve the transfer experience.

Recommended Citation

Richardson, A. J., & Knight, D. B. (2025). Exploring Credit Loss for Engineering Transfer Students. Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges, 28 (1). Retrieved from https://commons.vccs.edu/inquiry/vol28/iss1/6