Here are three reports to know about this month:

Good news on transfer

New data show that college transfer rates, especially among community college students moving to four-year institutions, were up this fall. Overall, college transfer enrollment increased this past fall from fall 2022 by 5.3%, led by a 7.7% increase among upward transfers from community colleges to four-year institutions, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center. Nearly all racial/ethnic groups saw increases in upward transfer enrollments — with rates ranging from 6.0% to 7.9% — reversing declines in fall 2022. Asian students were the exception, seeing a -4.5% decline in the fall.

Why adults might enroll/withdraw

Currently enrolled college students were less likely to consider “stopping out” in 2023 than in 2022, according to a new report from Gallup and Lumina Foundation. However, Hispanic and Black students are still more likely than their white peers to say they’ve considered withdrawing in the past six months. Gallup in Fall 2023 surveyed both currently enrolled college students and unenrolled adults. Currently enrolled students said emotional stress is the biggest reason they might withdraw. Among unenrolled adults, 59% say they have considered enrolling in a postsecondary program in the past two years; 23% have considered a certificate program, and 22% have considered working toward an associate degree. They also said financial aid and scholarships are important to getting them to enroll in a postsecondary program in the next 12 months.

Decreasing time to completion

A report by Ad Astra is refocusing attention on how helping part-time students take full-time course loads can significantly improve their chances of completion. The report compares part-time and full-time students as those who are respectfully “walking” and “jogging” toward completion. Generally, “students who were jogging versus walking are 7x more likely to graduate,” it says. There are examples of colleges that have made progress through “intentionality, data and design,” such as Germann Community College, which revised its scheduling and added more clarity to its pathways approach to better match what students needed. The ensuing results included a 5% decrease in time-to-degree, 12% increase in productive credit hours and 21.5% decrease in credits-to-degree.