PCE Units As Transfer Advisory Hubs

I've been following this Inside Higher Ed series on Michigan's credit transfer overhaul. As is the case with so many private universities, too often the burden of proving that credits should count falls on the student. The fix Michigan is pursuing, which is based simply on shared principles, transparency, and institutions taking responsibility for the complexity they created, is built largely around community college articulation networks. It's a model that I (and others) have been advocating for years in the private university space.

Most private institutions (particularly mid-tier tuition-dependent privates) sit outside their community college-to-state school transfer ecosystems, primarily because they have ridiculously restrictive transfer requirements. But now there are financial and market exigencies that should be driving private universities to adopt more progressive and fluid transfer policies. And this is precisely where schools and colleges of professional & continuing studies excel.

PCE units specialize in the populations traditional undergraduate admissions and transfer policies weren't designed for (working adults, military-connected students, career-changers, and community college transfer students). PCE units already run prior learning assessment, portfolio review, and credit-for-experience processes. Note: these are mission critical functions that should never be located outside of an academic unit in a hack back-office administrative unit of visionless, transactional, robotic staff.

Imagine if a bold, mission-committed private university formalized this PCE capability and strength into something bigger that looks like an Advisory Hub for Transfer Success. Imagine a standing, no-strings-attached resource within the university for any community college student interested in transferring in. Imagine a single unit that publishes plain-language transfer guides the way public flagships do, offers free human-reviewed credit evaluations before a student applies, assigns single-point-of-contact trained advisors (not bots), and formally partners on behalf of the university with local community colleges. 

Yeah, just imagine it.