Transfers welcome p1 - Military - College News and Information - Military Times EDGE

With more students starting their higher education at affordable community colleges and the stagnant economy sending even more learners back to school, campuses now realize that catering to transfers and other nontraditional students makes academic and financial sense.

“These are students who fall through the cracks,” said Bonita Jacobs, an associate professor of higher education at the University of North Texas and executive director of its National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students.

At North Texas, which admitted 4,000 transfer students in 2008, 150 of those students live together in a special dormitory wing set aside for transfers. At the University of California, Santa Barbara, an annual infusion of 1,500 transfer students led officials to create a four-credit “transfer success” course that teaches effective study habits and stress management techniques.

Britt Andreatta, a UCSB assistant dean of students who teaches the transfer course, predicts the belated focus on transfer students — whether community college graduates, adults returning to school or those at a new institution but still on the four-year plan — will only rise.