UH implements automatic admission and reverse transfer procedures

University of Hawaiʻi
Contact:
Carolyn Tanaka, (808) 956-8109
Associate Vice President, External Affairs and University Relations
Posted: Dec 21, 2009

HONOLULU – Two new initiatives at the University of Hawaiʻi are designed to better serve students who transfer between the two year and four year campuses. A new automatic admission and reverse transfer procedure aims to improve degree attainment in the state and allow the UH campuses to work together to help students achieve their academic goals. Proposed by UH Mānoa, and enthusiastically endorsed by the other campuses, the procedural changes will be implemented in spring 2010.
 
The admission standards at UH remain unchanged, but these procedural changes will expedite a student’s ability to enroll and to finish a degree program. Automatic admission will admit a graduate from one of the seven community colleges to one of the three baccalaureate campuses. For community college students who transfer before receiving a degree, reverse transfer will lead to a credit review to determine if they have earned their associate’s degree.
 
“These exciting initiatives will allow students to move from community colleges to baccalaureate-degree granting campuses much more easily and seamless than before,” says Reed Dasenbrock, vice chancellor for academic affairs at UH Mānoa. “We know that an increasing number of students who plan to earn a bachelor’s degree are starting at a community college, and we need to help them complete higher education with the degrees they hope and expect to earn.”
 
Linda Johnsrud, vice president for academic planning and policy for the UH System commented, “The younger generations in Hawaiʻi (25 to 34 year olds) are not as well educated as the older generations (35 to 44, and 45 to 54 year olds). Reversing this trend is critical to the future of Hawaiʻi, and these initiatives will help increase the number of educated citizens in the state.”
 
The university will utilize its STAR system, which records all of the student’s course data, to identify those graduating each semester from a community college and eligible for automatic admission into one of the system’s three baccalaureate-granting campuses. The student will be notified that they have been admitted to the baccalaureate campus of their choice. To ease the transition, UH will also waive the application fee, allow for priority registration, and analyze student transcripts to help identify likely major(s).
 
In addition to automatic admission, the university will also identify students who transferred to a baccalaureate campus from a community college before receiving their associate’s degree. Reverse transfer will provide an option for students to be awarded their associate’s degree as they progress toward their bachelor’s degree. If for any reason, they choose not to finish, they will have their associates degree in hand. Receiving one degree may also encourage them to continue their course of studies.
 
Spearheaded by UH Manoa, the goal of these procedures is for the ten UH campuses to collaborate to produce quality graduates and to help students realize their dreams.