Research, Policy Advocacy, Consulting

Helping Colleges and Universities better serve transfer students.

College Transfer Solutions is dedicated to helping states and institutions develop real solutions to enable students to fully transfer their credits and apply those credits to their degree. States and institutions must address the real issues facing students as they pursue a college degree. The focus should be on the loss of transfer credits and college completion which would help more students graduate on time with less debt.

College Transfer Solutions works with colleges and universities to enroll, retain, and graduate transfer students.

• 38% percent of all college students will transfer at least once before completing a bachelor’s degree. The vast majority of students will transfer either into or out of a community college.

• Community college transfer students represent 49% of all students who complete bachelor’s degrees at four year schools. The largest barrier to their success is losing credits when transferring.

• The average transfer student loses over 40% of their credits. Community college students who transfer to their state universities lose over 20% of their credits. This loss of credits would be equivalent to almost an entire semester of credits and would delay the students time to graduate.

Recent Press Coverage

Washington Post: How to fight big universities that stomp on your local college credits Americans long for advice on getting from high school to a good college. There is an inexhaustible supply of writing and consulting on that subject.Sadly, it is much more difficult to find guides on how to get from a community college to a four-year school. Thank goodness for John Mullane, as head of his own consulting firm, College Transfer Solutions, he has made that difficult transition the focus of his research and writing. There has been much talk about making college free. But Mullane said tuition cost is often “not the biggest factor when students decide where to transfer. How many credits a student can successfully transfer and whether or not they can graduate on time seem to be much more important to students. A private college that accepts all your credits may be more affordable in the end than a state university that rejects your credits and delays your graduation. Another factor is the lost wages of spending an extra semester or year in college.”

Politico: How the pandemic forever changed higher education The pandemic has highlighted the issue of transfer credit loss even more this year with some students choosing to attend classes closer to home, said John Mullane, president of College Transfer Solutions. Mullane, who has worked with community college students as a counselor, adviser and adjunct professor for more than a decade, said the pandemic has boosted attention on making sure students have smooth pathways through higher education. But for students who transfer from community college to a public four-year, a statewide transfer credit system could be a solution. With Jill Biden, a community college professor, in the White House, Mullane said it “certainly will bring more attention to community colleges.” Upcoming state legislative sessions could also lead to re-examining community colleges. “The solution is really a political solution with state legislatures passing laws and mandating the statewide transfer pathways,” he said. Mullane also recommended that states create advisory councils that produce a report to ensure the pathways developed work.

Inside Higher Ed: How COVID Could Impact Transfer The COVID-19 pandemic has created uncertainty about what will happen next. Experts say colleges need to improve transfer relationships now to stay afloat in this crisis. Students’ finances could force more collaboration between colleges as well, said John Mullane, president and founder of College Transfer Solutions, a company that provides research, consulting and policy advocacy for transfer issues to colleges and universities. "The last affordable route to a bachelor’s degree is the community college," Mullane said. "Colleges that do best with transfers will be the ones to thrive. Private colleges can compete with public four-year colleges by accepting more transfer credits and creating better pathways.” Mullane also advocates for lawmakers to improve transfer pathways at the state level. Some states have legislation that mandates pathways for all public institutions, but not all. And few states fully enforce transfer credit statutes, he said.

The Chronicle of Higher Education: Why Covid-19 Could Force Colleges to Fix Their Transfer Problems This year, the pandemic threatens to magnify inequities that already plague the transfer system. At the same time, the stakes have never been higher for colleges to attract new students. It’s a well-worn path strewn with barriers and detours that lead to dead ends. The current crisis, many hope, could provide a catalyst for long-overdue repairs. John Mullane, president and founder of College Transfer Solutions, a research and advocacy group that helps colleges improve services to transfer students said he’s cautiously optimistic the current crisis will force colleges and policymakers to finally shore up the transfer process. “If this problem doesn’t get fixed now,” he said, “then it may never get fixed.”

Inside Higher Ed: Free With No Degree This essay written by John Mullane and published by Inside Higher Ed, discusses how free college proposals completely miss the fundamental problems facing students as they pursue a college degree. Colleges concentrate too much on recruiting new students and need to do more to retain and graduate the ones who are already enrolled in higher education. The focus should be on loss of transfer credits and college completion, which would help more students graduate on time with less debt. With the coronavirus pandemic creating so much uncertainty about the future and the economy, a lot of students will look to transfer colleges to take courses closer to home. Colleges that do the best job serving transfer students will be the ones to thrive over the next several years.

PBS NewsHour: Pass/fail grades may help students during the COVID-19 crisis, but could cost them later This PBS NewsHour story was co-published with the Hechinger Report. “My concern is it becomes another excuse to not accept their credit, or to give them elective credit and not apply it to their major,” said John Mullane, president of College Transfer Solutions, which works with universities and colleges to streamline the complicated transfer process. “With a pass/fail in biology or engineering or business, I see them giving biology elective credit or engineering elective credit and making [students] retake that course,” Mullane said. “That could set them back a semester or a year.”

Politico: The potential disaster of free community college - Experts say too many new students will overwhelm the system. “If you make college free and then enroll all these new students, it would just make the problem even worse,” said John Mullane, president of College Transfer Solutions. — “If the schools are having a problem right now serving the students that they have, and if you’re giving them more students, how is that going to help them to retain and graduate the current students that they have?” he asked.

Fox 61: Getting the most out of community colleges in CT – is there a better way to transfer credits?
A new study finds inefficient transfer credit pathways are costing Connecticut community colleges nearly $16 million in lost tuition revenue per semester. And, the study’s author says it’s not serving students well, either. The president of College Transfer Solutions, John Mullane, joined Aisha Mbowe on the FOX61 Morning News on Saturday.

Washington Post: When it comes to tuition-free college, it’s not all about the money. Many Democratic candidates for president want public college tuition to be free. John Mullane, a teacher, community-college counselor and scholar, has shown he knows more about this issue than they do. He has worked on this for many years and started a company named College Transfer Solutions. “States can make college as free as they want,” he said in a recent letter to the House Committee on Education and Labor, “but if they don’t have a system in place to help students get through these institutions and graduate on time with a college degree that allows them to go directly into a good job, or to fully transfer the credits to a bachelor’s degree, they are doing more harm than good.”

NPR and The Hechinger Report: Universities that are recruiting older students often leave them floundering “We’re missing the real problem, which is we have to put a system in place so students can actually graduate,” said John Mullane, president of College Transfer Solutions. “We need fundamental change on our campuses and we’re not getting that.”