The National Student Clearinghouse recently released its third report on transfer and mobility. The report, Signature Report 15: Transfer and Mobility: A National View of Student Movement in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2011 Cohort, examines the transfer pathways of students who started postsecondary education in fall 2011. Analysis includes student enrollment patterns across different institutions, across state boundaries, and for the first time, dis-aggregations by race and ethnicity.
The data revealed that there were 2.8 million first time students in the fall 2011 cohort. Over one million (38.0 percent) of those students continued their academic studies at a different institution within the first six years. Interestingly, two-year institutions serve more than half of the cohort at 1.5 million but only 5.6 percent transfer with some type of credential from their starting institution. Of the one million transfer students, 27.2 percent transferred across state lines. Of students who transferred, Asian and White students were more likely to transfer than Black and Hispanic students. Click here for the full report.