Introduction

Transfer is a primary route to a bachelor’s degree in US higher education. Transfer student experiences and outcomes reveal a pervasive, institutionalized pattern of prejudice and discrimination, resulting in long-term inequities in US higher education outcomes, especially obstacles to upward mobility and social justice. Transfer is typically seen as an administrative function—a mechanical process whereby students move and “articulate” from one autonomous institution to another. This function is usually under the purview of the functional areas of admissions or enrollment management. At the most elementary level of understanding, a student must accumulate credits before transferring. Thus, the starting place for enhancement of transfer student success would be to examine the actions both the student and the sending institution take to make a student academically successful in learning and receiving academic credits early in the sending college experience. This chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.