Pennsylvania’s massive pool of potential college transfer students now have a system that makes the transfer process easier, less time-consuming, and more affordable.
The state’s Department of Education unveiled Tuesday the Pennsylvania Transfer and Articulation Center (PA TRAC) Web site –
“It will make the transfer process easier and save the transfer students money,” says Pennsylvania Education Department spokesman Michael Race. “They won’t have to do redo courses at one school that they already took at another because the credits don’t transfer. It will encourage them to go on and get a degree, as opposed to giving up in frustration because they can’t get credits to transfer.”
In 2006, Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell signed a law mandating the state’s 14 community colleges and 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education to adopt equivalency standards across the state, creating at least 30 hours of foundational courses with the credits that would be easily transferable among those institutions. The law also called for the establishment of an electronic portal that provides public access to transfer information.
As a result of this law, the state not only created the electronic portal, PA TRAC, but it also finalized the transfer course equivalencies and the Transfer Credit Framework that are made available through PA TRAC. The framework — which lists those courses that are easily transferring among participating colleges and universities — goes into effect for students who will matriculate in the fall.
Not only are the 28 colleges in the state’s higher education system going to guarantee certain credit transfers through PA TRAC, but four other institutions not part of the Pennsylvania state system, including Lincoln University and St. Francis University, are participating in the transfer and articulation effort.
Through PA TRAC, Pennsylvania educators are also seeking to provide new resources that assist an increasingly nomadic college student population.
