MassTransfer Pathways

Background

In 2008, the Board accepted the final report from the Commonwealth Transfer Advisory Group, which included a series of recommendations like the creation of the MassTransfer policy. A year later,  the Department of Higher Education launched the MassTransfer website and efforts were focused on implementing the new policy. In 2012, community colleges began to work on segment-wide course equivalencies and the Legislature later funded this work through the Higher Education Innovation Fund, formerly know as the Performance Incentive Fund. The goal of this work was to further ease the process of transfer among Massachusetts public colleges and universities governed by the MassTransfer policy, which currently maps equivalencies at the program level (full transfer of credit between linked associate’s and bachelor’s programs) and at the general education level (full transfer of credit for a defined set of core requirements accepted at all campuses).

A2B (Associate to Baccalaureate) Pathways builds on the work of the Common Course Numbering initiative. It was developed by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education in close collaboration with the 29 public campuses, with the goal of going beyond the simple cataloguing of courses and increasing student success.

The basic approach undertaken in creating A2B Pathways among the public institutions of higher education in the Commonwealth relies on three distinct components that build upon each other. These three components consist of the following:

1. Identify the foundational courses for each discipline. Foundational courses are those offered amongst the community colleges, state university, and University of Massachusetts campuses that are made of the core coursework that is recommended for students to complete during their first two years of study in a given discipline. After the courses have been identified, faculty develop a list of essential core topics that need to be covered in order for the course be part of a statewide equivalency, therefore making it eligible for transfer across the Commonwealth amongst public higher education institutions.
2. Transfer representatives and faculty work with DHE staff to build a pathway map that lists the sequence of courses that make up the first 60 credits in a particular major. These should include the foundational courses that arise from Step 1. Then, the 60-credits are mapped backed to the community colleges. The information gleaned from the first two steps of this exercise will allow DHE to construct a web-based portal for students to immediately track the academic pathways, by discipline, from the two-year to four-year institution. Pathways are reviewed every two years to ensure the foundational courses and content are still relevant to a students’ postsecondary studies.
3. The beginnings of a dialogue, within the discipline and across our public institutions, about the learning outcomes a student should meet in the foundational courses as students progress through their first two years of study. This brings a depth and rigor to the discussions that go beyond identifying foundational courses and their topics, creation of transfer pathways, and listing of credits.

For more information about this initiative, read Creating a Unified System of Transfer for the Commonwealth.

Timeline & Materials