What Mich. Transfer Students Should Be Able to Count On

In the first part in this series, Michigan students described a transfer process shaped less by clear expectations than by timing, institutional practices and access to the right information. They shared experiences of receiving different answers from different people, earning credits without knowing how those credits would apply and feeling pressure to make major academic decisions before they had the information needed to do so with confidence.

Those experiences point to a broader question that extends beyond any single institution:

What should Michigan students be able to count on when they transfer?

The answer should not depend on where a student begins, which institution they hope to attend or whether they happen to find the right adviser at the right time. Students should be able to trust that equivalent learning will be evaluated consistently, that their transfer options will be transparent and that institutions are working together to reduce unnecessary barriers before students are left to navigate them on their own.

That expectation is guiding the work of Michigan’s Advisory Council on Transfer Success (ACTS), a cross-sector group of leaders representing community colleges, public universities, independent colleges and universities, and statewide partners committed to strengthening transfer for Michigan students.

Michigan’s higher education landscape makes this collaboration especially important. The state’s Constitution grants colleges and universities significant institutional autonomy, allowing each institution to establish its own academic policies and degree requirements. That independence is an important strength, but it also means lasting improvements to transfer cannot be achieved through statewide mandates alone. Progress depends on institutions working together to identify where greater consistency benefits students while respecting each institution’s academic mission.

Since its formation, ACTS has been laying that foundation by establishing a shared vision and guiding principles for transfer success, providing cross-sector input on the continued evolution of MiTransfer Pathways, identifying opportunities to strengthen the Michigan Transfer Agreement, and exploring ways to deepen collaboration across Michigan’s transfer ecosystem. While these efforts differ in scope, they share a common goal: ensuring Michigan students can count on transfer processes that are more transparent, more predictable and better aligned with their educational goals.

ACTS member Amy Reddinger of Bay College described the work as bringing people from across the state together around a practical question: “What can we agree upon as a shared pathway for these students?”

Students Should Be Able to Count on Earned Credit

For many students, uncertainty begins with something as fundamental as whether the work they have already completed will be recognized consistently.

Reddinger recently worked with a faculty member advocating for a student whose advanced mathematics course was denied for transfer, even though the same course had previously been accepted by the receiving university. “The course had not changed and the syllabus had remained fundamentally the same, but the course was not accepted for transfer,” Reddinger explained. The difference came down to a change in how the syllabus was interpreted.

“This highlights the very uneven terrain our students and staff navigate,” Reddinger said.

A credit represents far more than a line on a transcript. It reflects a student’s investment of time, money, effort and progress toward a degree. When the value of that credit changes unexpectedly from one institution to another, students are left questioning not only the guidance they received, but the reliability of the transfer process itself.

Variation across universities also shapes decisions long before a student transfers. Community college advisers may recommend courses “just in case” a student eventually chooses an institution with a particular requirement. That can push students into courses that do not match their program or goals and, in some cases, create an unnecessary academic barrier.

This is where Michigan’s statewide articulation work, including the continued expansion of MiTransfer Pathways, comes in. As course equivalencies become clearer and more broadly aligned across institutions, students gain flexibility. Rather than being pushed into early decisions based on uncertainty, they can continue making meaningful academic progress while exploring institutions or refining their academic interests. If their goals change, as they often do, they are less likely to lose momentum because more of their previous learning can continue to count toward their next step.

Ultimately, students should not have to wonder whether equivalent learning will be recognized consistently. They should be able to count on knowing, clearly and early, how the work they have already completed will apply to whatever comes next.

Students Should Be Able to Count on Progress

Recognizing prior learning is only the first step. Students should also be able to understand how that learning moves them toward completing a degree.

For Darryl Gardner of Wayne State University, that means providing students with certainty, transparency and intentional support long before they arrive on campus.

That begins with more than identifying which credits will transfer. Students should know how those credits satisfy degree requirements, which academic milestones remain and what completing a bachelor’s degree is likely to require both in time and coursework. As Gardner put it, students deserve “an academic road map that begins with the work they have already completed rather than one that assumes they are starting from scratch.”

This distinction is an important one: Accepting credit is not the same as applying it to a degree.

A university may recognize a course by posting it to a student’s transcript while counting it only as an elective credit. Although the credit transfers, it may do little to satisfy general education requirements, major prerequisites or other degree milestones. From the student’s perspective, progress can stall even though their transcript suggests otherwise.

Gardner believes institutions should shift their focus from maximizing the number of transferred credits to maximizing transferred progress.

Students can also lose momentum during the transitions between admissions, the registrar, academic departments, financial aid and academic advising. Missing prerequisites, competitive program requirements or course-sequencing challenges often surface only after enrollment, when changing direction becomes more difficult and expensive.

These obstacles are rarely a reflection of a student’s ability or effort. More often, they emerge from the way institutional processes intersect. The result can be additional semesters, increased costs and unnecessary frustration for students who believed they were on track.

Many of these surprises are preventable. Earlier communication about major requirements, transfer expectations and upper-division preparation allows students to make informed decisions before they enroll rather than after they encounter an unexpected barrier.

Students should not have to discover the fine print after making one of the biggest educational decisions of their lives. They should be able to count on understanding not only that their credits transfer, but how those credits will help them reach graduation.

Students Should Be Able to Count on Meaningful Choice

For students, meaningful choice only exists when they have the information and confidence to understand how each option connects to their goals. For students, meaningful choice only exists when they have the information and confidence to understand how each option connects to their goals. That means being able to consider not only whether their credits will apply but which institution’s programs, learning environment, support and opportunities are the right fit for them. “We are so lucky to give those choices to Michiganders,” says Mariah Orzolek of Alma College. “It provides students the opportunity to choose the college that works for them.”

Orzolek sees a strong transfer system with meaningful choice for students, recognizing that every accepted credit represents more than completed coursework. It reflects a student’s investment in learning and the collective effort of the faculty, institutions and communities that helped make that learning possible. When institutions recognize that learning in ways that satisfy degree requirements, they honor not only the student’s work but also the public and personal investment already made in that education.

That, Orzolek argues, is also good stewardship. Every course a student unnecessarily repeats represents additional time, additional cost and delayed progress toward a credential that Michigan’s workforce and communities need.

That spirit of shared responsibility extends across Michigan’s entire higher education landscape.

“We’re all in it together with the responsibility to educate our Michigan students,” Orzolek said.

From Institutional Differences to a Shared Promise

Every sector has a role to play in delivering on that responsibility when it comes to transfer. Community colleges provide accessible entry points and strong academic foundations. Public universities and independent colleges offer a wide variety of opportunities, from research and distinctive academic experiences to campus culture, community and student support. Each institution serves students differently, but every institution shares responsibility for helping those students move successfully toward a degree.

The goal is not to make every institution the same. As Gardner put it, “The objective is not curricular uniformity, but institutional coherence.” Michigan’s colleges and universities have different missions, strengths and academic priorities, and that diversity benefits students. The opportunity lies in ensuring those differences expand students’ options rather than create unnecessary barriers to progress.

The shift begins with a different question. Instead of asking why transfer cannot work across institutional boundaries, Michigan’s colleges and universities are shifting to ask, “How can we?” Whether through clearer course equivalencies, stronger advising partnerships, improved transfer pathways or more transparent degree planning, every institution can contribute to a transfer ecosystem that works better for students.

When institutions approach transfer as a shared responsibility rather than an individual challenge to solve, students gain something far more valuable than additional destinations. They gain confidence that Michigan’s higher education community is working together to help them reach what comes next.

From Practice to Promise

The work of strengthening transfer does not end with identifying challenges or establishing shared principles. It requires continued collaboration, sustained investment and a commitment to translating shared goals into practices that students experience throughout their educational journey.

That commitment is reflected in the work of Michigan’s Advisory Council on Transfer Success and the broader Transfer Success Project. Together, these efforts are advancing a shared vision for Michigan’s transfer ecosystem where student progress toward educational and career goals is supported by efficient, consistent and transparent transfer processes that optimize educational momentum across colleges and universities.

The ACTS vision and principles provide a foundation for this work by reinforcing what students and institutional leaders have consistently identified as essential: Prior learning should be respected, unnecessary barriers should be removed, expectations should be transparent and improvements should last beyond any single initiative or funding cycle.

Moving forward, MiLEAP’s Office of Higher Education will continue working with partners across Michigan’s higher education ecosystem to support this shared vision and advance improvements that help students successfully navigate transfer.

As Sarah Szurpicki, deputy director of MiLEAP’s Office of Higher Education, shared, “Transfer success isn’t a project with an end date; it’s an ongoing commitment. Our role is to convene, communicate and collaborate, because durable transfer improvement in Michigan runs through the institutions themselves. Michigan’s students are counting on us to keep building.”

The next step is turning that promise into practice through ongoing faculty collaboration, advising, technology, communication and institutional changes that make transfer easier not only on paper, but in students’ actual lives.

The part three will examine how Michigan is beginning to put that promise into practice. Success, Reddinger said, should ultimately feel almost invisible to students: “Students should notice almost nothing at all because there was nothing to notice.”