Credits guaranteed to transfer within Kansas
By Rachel Luchmun
Fifty-nine credit hours were approved by the Board of Regents in an effort to facilitate student transfers within the state of Kansas.
Those courses (see sidebars) will transfer to all higher education institutions within the state of Kansas effective immediately. More courses are scheduled to be approved by June of this year.
“[The approved courses are] courses like English, History, Psychology,” Terry Calaway, college president, said. “There are another 55-60 on the queue to be approved by June.”
Vanessa Lamoreaux, associate director of Communications, Kansas Board of Regents, said the update to the articulation agreement was motivated by a commitment to help students.
“We know this is an important issue on a very large scope,” Lamoreaux said. “We want to facilitate students moving around [different institutions in the state] to accomplish their goals.”
Calaway said some universities were initially opposed to the idea.
“Some said we were ‘weakening the education system’ because we were forcing them to accept courses from community colleges,” Calaway said. “They think they are the only ones who can use their magic and teach properly. Magic happens in our classrooms too.”
Transfer students from the college typically perform well at four-year institutions, sometimes outperforming students attending the institution for the full duration of their study.
“There is no issue of quality,” Calaway said. “There is equal quality in the robustness of the curriculums.”
There is yet no information about whether the new articulation agreement will be retroactive.
“This is an ongoing process,” Lamoreaux said. “[Right now,] we are not prepared to say if it will be retroactive.”
Student Stephanie Thompson said she is transferring to the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy and has spent many hours with counselors making sure she picked the right classes.
“[Because I planned so much] I’ve never had to change or drop a class because I found out that it would not transfer, however I have many friends who had [to change or drop a class],” Thompson said.
Contact Rachel Luchmun, news editor, at rluchmun@jccc.edu.