New study suggests changes to Illinois’ community college-university
pipeline
[May 07, 2025]
By Peter Hancock
SPRINGFIELD — As the cost of higher education continues to rise, many
students have turned to local community colleges as a way of holding
down the cost of pursuing a degree.
Sometimes referred to as the “2-plus-2” model, the idea is to complete
the freshman- and sophomore-level general education requirements at a
local community college – where tuition rates may be half to one-third
that of a four-year institution – then transfer to a university to
finish out a degree.
By many measures, Illinois has been a leader in making the transfer
process accessible for community college students. A 2020 report from
the Illinois Board of Higher Education and Illinois Community College
Board noted that Illinois led the nation in bachelor’s degree completion
rates among community college transfer students, with nearly 54%
completing their degree within six years.
But a new report by a higher education advocacy group says that
statistic offers an incomplete picture. While the completion rate may be
high for those who succeed in making the transfer to a university, many
more community college students never make the transfer, even though
that’s their plan when they first enroll.
The report by the Partnership for College Completion says that while 79%
of community college students start with the intention of transferring
to a university, only 35% of them do.
The success rate is even lower for low-income students and students of
color, the report states. Only 28% of low-income students transfer,
compared to 44% of higher-income students. And while Black and Latino
students make up 44% of community college enrollment in Illinois, they
make up just 31% of those who transfer to public universities.
The report also says Illinois graduates who transferred from a community
college take out, on average, 38% more debt than those who start at
four-year schools. Transfer students also attempt an average of nine
more credits during their college career than those who don’t transfer.
“We’re trying to put a bridge between different systems that were not
designed to work with each other and aren’t honestly designed to work
primarily for students,” Mike Abrahamson, associate director of research
and policy at PCC and a coauthor of the report, said in an interview.
“We’re seeing breakdowns at every part of this pipeline.”
Abrahamson said the 2-plus-2 model works best for the small percentage
of students who come into the system knowing what they want to major in
and what university they want to transfer to. But for most others, he
said, multiple barriers can stand in the way of a student making a
seamless transition from community college to a four-year school.
One of the biggest obstacles, according to the report, is identifying
the community college courses for which credits are eligible to be
transferred between institutions, a process known as “articulation.”
Illinois has two programs intended to make it easier to transfer credits
between schools. The Illinois Articulation Initiative, begun in 1993,
sets out a “general education core curriculum” that more than 100
participating institutions have agreed to accept. And the Student
Transfer Achievement Reform, or STAR Act, provides that students who
graduate from a community college with an associate’s degree can, if
they meet other qualifications, automatically be admitted to a public
university and enroll as a junior.
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The Illinois Community College System headquarters is pictured in
downtown Springfield. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew
Campbell)
But Abrahamson said the process is not as smooth and seamless as it
would seem. For example, he said, some universities have prerequisites
for their upper-level courses that may not be aligned with the general
education core curriculum that a student may have taken in community
college.
“We heard from students about, ‘Oh, I took this marketing class, and it
didn’t transfer for major credit, it transferred for elective credit. I
had to take a marketing class, and it was the exact same course and I
paid twice for it,’” Abrahamson said.
Another barrier, the report noted, is the direct cost of transferring
from one school to another. That can include application fees as well as
fees for obtaining copies of transcripts, costs that can multiply if the
student applies to multiple four-year institutions.
“In our discussions with students, we found that those could be
significant barriers for students,” Abrahamson said. “It’s a $30 or $40
application fee, but you multiply that over a couple institutions, and
it can be a real barrier for students to apply.”
Recommendations to lawmakers
The report offers several recommendations to make the transfer process
easier, some of which are being considered in the General Assembly.
Chief among those is to reform the way Illinois funds higher education.
Lawmakers are considering legislation this year to overhaul university
funding, one that would distribute new funds using a needs-based formula
similar to the Evidence-Based Funding model used in K-12 education. But
the Partnership for College Completion report also calls for overhauling
community college funding, “to reduce over-reliance on tuition and fee
revenue.”
Another proposal under consideration this year is to implement a
statewide direct admissions program in which graduating high school
seniors and community college students who are eligible to transfer to a
university would be automatically admitted to public universities where
they are qualified.
The report calls for expanding that program further by coupling it with
“guaranteed need-based financial aid.”
“I think almost all of our universities want to serve more transfer
students and want to serve their students as best they possibly can,”
Abrahamson said. “A lot of this comes down to giving them the resources
they need to do that.”
Gov. JB Pritzker has also pushed for a bill allowing community colleges
to offer four-year bachelor’s degree programs in certain high-demand
employment fields. But that measure has stalled thus far, with
Democratic leaders recently expressing disagreement on the plan at a
committee hearing to discuss the funding bill.
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