易胜博官网

The 易胜博官网 College of Life Sciences and Agriculture and the (CCSNH) have signed a universal articulation agreement that for the first time creates a pathway for students seeking to transfer from any of the seven community colleges in 易胜博官网 into any of the .

The new agreement addresses a longstanding dual challenge that transfer students commonly face 鈥攗nderstanding whether the courses they take at their community college will be accepted for credit and having confidence that if they take core courses required for their major before transferring, the courses will be equivalent in scope and difficulty to those at the four-year institution.

Kim Babbitt, COLSA鈥檚 associate dean of academic affairs, and Leslie Barber, professor of biology at and faculty fellow at CCSNH, spearheaded the articulation, which involved many stakeholders, including faculty, vice presidents of academic affairs, registrars, admissions, advising offices and department chairs.

But the agreement is more than an outline of the specific courses and grade point averages students need in order to transfer into one of the university鈥檚 life science majors. It鈥檚 the product of a painstaking process to establish equivalency among the courses on all eight campuses.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 do this at a cursory level,鈥� says Babbitt. 鈥淚t was really about how we make sure that the courses students take before they transfer are going to help them be as successful as they can be when they get to COLSA.鈥�

Babbitt and Barber, together with colleagues from COLSA, the and CCSNH, compared syllabi, the coursework and the assessments to determine whether the courses were equivalent in breadth, depth and rigor. When they found a course that wasn鈥檛 commensurate, the two worked with faculty to make the needed adjustments.

Altogether, they established equivalency for 43 biology courses, 10 chemistry courses, 15 physics courses and 19 math courses, which make up the core requirements of COLSA鈥檚 life science majors.

In the past, Babbitt says, community college courses were deemed equivalent by examining a course outline without a thorough comparison of the content. Students would arrive at 易胜博官网 unprepared for the work required in higher-level courses and might have to repeat these courses due to poor performance. This could lead to longer graduation times and paying twice for the same course, which undermines the cost saving achieved by starting out at a community college.

鈥淭he data couldn鈥檛 be more clear: The longer it takes students to complete a degree, the less likely they are to complete their degree,鈥� says Barber. 鈥淚t鈥檚 so important for financial reasons and completion reasons to keep the students on track.鈥�

Now, says Babbitt, students 鈥渨on鈥檛 miss a beat.鈥�

What鈥檚 more, rather than simply focusing on general education classes at the community college, the clear guidance and assured equivalencies mean students can confidently enroll in core courses like biology and anatomy and physiology that count toward their majors at 易胜博官网. The alternative 鈥� saving all the intensive lab courses for 易胜博官网 鈥� is a plan that Babbitt warns against.

鈥淪tudents have this idea that you go to community college and take all your gen eds, then transfer to 易胜博官网 and take your science classes,鈥� says Babbitt. 鈥淲e want students in the life sciences to take a maximum of two courses with labs each semester. Taking four classes with labs in one semester is like having eight classes 鈥� that鈥檚 a recipe for failure.鈥�

In 2011, Babbitt and Barber collaborated on an articulation agreement that defined a pathway for Great Bay Community College students and involved the same deep-dive course equivalency approach.

Encouraged by the success of this latest agreement, Barber is now using their universal articulation model to establish course equivalency between the community colleges and 易胜博官网鈥檚 College of Liberal Arts. She plans to expand the effort to include other four-year public colleges in the state.

Babbitt and Barber will re-examine the requirements laid out in the agreement in three years in case changes in the fields require changes to course content. With a system in place, they expect any revisions to go smoothly.

鈥淭his process of establishing these articulations built partnerships between faculty and deans and other folks at the campuses based on shared goals,鈥� says Barber. 鈥淣ow, when faculty gets feedback about a course, they are open to making the changes necessary to insure the students are properly prepared.鈥�

鈥淓verything was done through the lens of 鈥榯his is about helping our students be as successful as possible.鈥� It鈥檚 not about one school is better than another,鈥� says Babbitt. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing all this hard work so we can have increased student success, and that resonates with everybody.鈥�