BILL ANALYSIS
AB 2302
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 20, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION
Marty Block, Chair
AB 2302 (Fong) - As Amended: April 8, 2010
SUBJECT : Postsecondary education: student transfer.
SUMMARY : Requires the California State University (CSU) and
the California Community Colleges (CCC), and requests the
University of California (UC), to develop a common core
curriculum for major preparation, to develop transfer agreements
and to establish transfer degree programs that would guarantee
as associate degree and transfer to the UC and CSU systems.
Specifically, this bill :
1)Requires UC, CSU, and CCC to develop an intersegmental common
core transfer curriculum in major preparation courses that
meets with the following requirements:
a) The major preparation common core curriculum shall be
the same for all transfer students, regardless of the
public four-year institution or the campus to which the
student transfers;
b) Any CCC student who successfully completes the
applicable transfer core curriculum is deemed to be
eligible for a transfer degree, as defined, commencing with
the fall term of the 2012-13 academic calendar; and,
c) Each CCC district governing board shall ensure that all
students desiring to transfer to CSU or UC have appropriate
access to a copy of the transfer core curriculum in general
education courses and major preparation courses, imposing a
state-mandated local program.
d) UC and CSU are not limited from imposing post-transfer
curriculum requirements on transfer students.
2)Sunsets existing law related to UC and CSU articulation
agreements, effective July 1, 2013, and would repeal these
provisions on January 1, 2014, and repeals other
transfer-related requirements in existing law.
3)Requires CSU and requests UC to develop transfer admission
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agreement programs at each CCC campus for CCC students who
demonstrate the intent to meet academic requirements for
transfer, as defined, and requires the transfer admission
agreement to guarantee admission to the campus and major
identified in the agreement and transfer of all units included
in the agreement, as specified.
4)Requires the CSU Chancellor and the CCC Chancellor, and
requests the UC President, to jointly develop and implement a
transfer degree program as follows:
a) The transfer degree shall be granted by each CCC,
commencing with the fall term of the 2012-13 academic year,
to students who complete the common core curriculum in
general education and major preparation in his or her
major;
b) The transfer degree shall constitute a recognized
educational credential awarded by a CCC, equivalent to
satisfactory completion of the requirements of a
postsecondary educational program at the associate degree
level;
c) The transfer degree shall guarantee a transfer student
upper-division status at UC or CSU upon enrollment in the
major for which the student completes the applicable lower
division requirements; and,
d) Subject to a competitive application process, CSU is
required, and UC is requested, to guarantee admission to
their respective segments to each student who earns a
transfer degree, subject to prescribed requirements.
5)Requires CCC and CSU, and requests UC, to jointly develop and
implement academic requirements for purposes of this bill in
consultation with their respective Academic Senates.
6)Require the CCC Chancellor and the CSU Chancellor, and
requests the UC President, to report to the Legislature, as
specified, by June 30, 2011.
7)Requires the CCC Board of Governors to ensure that all CCC
students are informed of transfer pathways and transfer
degrees.
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8)Provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines
that the bill contains costs mandated by the state,
reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these
statutory provisions.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Specifies that the transfer function be a central
institutional priority of all segments of higher education in
California and that the segments develop policy and practices
to support this priority.
2)Requires that the segments of higher education develop
transfer agreements that specify the requirements a CCC
student must meet to transfer to the public four-year segments
of higher education.
3)Authorizes CCC to grant associate degrees in arts and science.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown
COMMENTS : Background : While the rate of student transfer has
generally increased over the past 15 years, the transfer process
is widely regarded as complex, confusing, and inefficient.
Numerous entities have called for the streamlining of the
transfer process, including the Legislative Analyst's Office
(LAO) and the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and
Policy (IHELP). IHELP reports that 73% of California
undergraduates attend CCC; however, of the 1999-2000 student
cohort who identified a degree as their goal, only 25%
transferred to a four-year institution within six years. At the
same time, recent studies indicate that California must increase
the number of residents with advanced degrees in order to
sustain its economic competitiveness. In 2006-07, CCC
transferred nearly 99,000 students to four-year institutions:
54,391 to CSU, 14,000 to UC, 18,752 to California private
institutions, and 11,825 to out-of-state institutions. This
bill contains many of the recommendations included in IHELP's
report entitled, "Crafting a Student-Centered Transfer Process
in California: Lessons From Other States" (August 2009).
Existing transfer patterns : CCC students who wish to transfer
to a UC or CSU campus typically take a set of general education
courses (about 40 units), courses related to their major
interest (6-8 units), and electives or local degree
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requirements; together these constitute lower division
preparation. UC, CSU, and CCC are required to maintain a common
core curriculum for general education for the purposes of
transfer but not for major preparation. There are four primary
transfer patterns that students follow for transfer:
1)Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (general
education) for students who wish to transfer to the UC or CSU
systems, although it is not necessarily accepted by all UC
campuses and all UC majors.
2)CSU Breadth (general education) for students who wish to
transfer to a CSU campus.
3)Lower Division Transfer Patterns (major preparation) for
students who are pursuing a specific major goal and wish to
transfer to a CSU campus (this pattern would sunset on July 1,
2013, under this bill).
4)UC's lower-division transfer curriculum that defines degree
paths for CCC students who wish to attend a UC campus based on
identified commonalities and differences in similar majors.
Specific CCC courses and sequences of courses are articulated
systemwide at UC when four or more UC campuses have already
articulated them for common requirements in similar majors.
(This pattern would sunset on July 1, 2013, under this bill.)
Major preparation common core curriculum : As mentioned
previously, each major at each UC campus has its own set of
major preparation requirements, and while CSU has established
common major preparation requirements for high demand majors,
CSU can require additional pre-major courses that differ by
campus. This bill would require UC to develop a common core
curriculum for major preparation and would disallow CSU from
imposing additional pre-major courses that differ by campus.
However, this bill would allow UC and CSU to impose additional
pre-major requirements after the student has transferred.
Transfer agreements : A transfer agreement works as a contract
between the student and the campus he or she wishes to attend by
guaranteeing admission if specific academic requirements are
met. In most cases, students must complete a certain number of
units before entering such an agreement. Each CSU campus
provides opportunity to enter into a transfer agreement to all
students that attend certain CCC campuses; UC campuses, however,
AB 2302
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do not always have transfer agreements with each CCC, although
they do tend to have transfer agreements with their local CCCs.
This bill would require UC to enter into transfer agreements
with each CCC campus and would not allow CSU to require
additional pre-major requirements before transfer.
Transfer degrees : Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations
requires associate degrees to include a major of at least 18
semester units or 27 quarter units of study in a single
discipline. CCC discontinued a previous transfer degree in
February 2008 because it lacked an academic focus. The transfer
degree awarded under this bill is intended to contain that
academic focus because it will include the major preparation
common core curriculum developed by UC and CSU pursuant to this
bill.
Post-transfer requirements : As noted previously, this bill
would allow UC and CSU to impose additional pre-major
requirements after the student has transferred. This allows the
faculty at each campus to require the coursework that they
believe is academically necessary in the major. However, a CSU
study found that transfer student graduated with an average of
141 semester units (120 units is usually needed to graduate).
The excess units resulted from course-taking actions at both CSU
and CCC with transfer students arriving at CSU with an average
of 75 CCC credits and graduating from CSU with an average of 76
credits. By allowing UC and CSU to impose additional pre-major
requirements after the student has transferred, will transfer
students continue to take excess units, only at a higher cost?
Technical amendment : This bill contains a drafting error that
requires the segments to the Legislature on Sections 1 and 11,
instead of on the entirety of this bill. Committee staff
recommends the following clarifying amendment:
Page 17, line 1: SEC. 11. (a) On or before June 30, 2011,
the Chancellor of the California Community Colleges, the
Chancellor of the California State University, and the
President of the University of California shall report to
the Legislature on progress toward compliance with Sections
1 and 11 1 through 10, inclusive, of this act.
Previous legislation : SB 652 (Scott), Chapter 804, Statutes of
2006, established UC's major preparation articulation process.
SB 1785 (Scott), Chapter 743, Statutes of 2004, established
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CSU's Lower Division Transfer Pattern.
Related legislation : AB 2752 (Blakeslee), set for hearing in
this Committee on April 20, would require CSU to develop a
common curriculum for lower division preparation that precludes
a campus from requiring nonelectives outside the common core
curriculum. SB 1440 (Padilla), pending hearing the Senate
Education Committee, would authorize CCCs to grant an associate
degree in the student's field of study that is designated as
being "for transfer". AB 440 (Beall) of 2009, which failed
passage by the Senate Education Committee, would authorize CCCs
to offer an associate degree with the special designation of
"for transfer" subject to specified requirements.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Campaign for College Opportunity
Families in Schools
Girls Incorporated of Orange County
K-16 Bridge Program
Kern Community College District
Los Angeles Community College District
Los Rios Community College District
Mt. San Jacinto Community College District
Southern California College Access Network
Yosemite Community College District
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Sandra Fried / HIGHER ED. / (916)
319-3960