A new program from the University of California aims to improve the transfer pathway from community colleges to four-year universities. The program also may boost equity in higher education, since Black and Latino students are more likely to enroll in community colleges than in four-year higher education institutions.
As of now, California ranks in the top 10 for states enrolling high school students in community college, but in the bottom 10 states for students enrolling in a four-year college or university, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The program was created to change that.
Set to launch in the spring 2023, the UC Dual Admission pilot program is designed to both help students transition from community college to university and enable more students to essentially defer university admission.
Each year, there are several thousand students who apply to UC who don’t meet the eligibility requirements. The issue is that either they haven’t completed the required courses due to curriculum limitations at their high school, or because of other financial and geographic barriers. Many of these students have strong academic records and have earned at least a 3.0 GPA, and could flourish in a university setting. The UC pilot program gives them the means to complete required courses in a community college setting and then transfer to a UC program.
The program will begin with the admissions cycle in spring of 2023, when UC applications who meet the eligibility criteria will receive a letter that invites them to participate in the program. Applications will get a conditional offer of UC admission to the six campuses that participate in the Transfer Admission Guarantee program, along with financial aid information. Admission to the University will be contingent on the student enrolling in a California Community College and completing the courses for transfer.
Campuses include UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz. UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego – the three campuses with high transfer-student demand – are not participating in the program.
While the pilot program will create a clear path to University of California schools, it may also increase community college enrollment. California’s community colleges have lost 350,000 students since the 2019-2020 school year due to COVID-19, a drop of more than 16 percent.
Currently, approximately 30 percent of UC undergraduates transferred from a community college. More than half of the transfer students receive ample financial aid that covers system-wide tuition and fees. UC anticipates that approximately 3,700 students will receive letters in the spring inviting them to participate in the program beginning in the fall 2023. The majority are from groups that are typically underrepresented in higher education.