Schools iron out agreements for transferring credit

Area colleges and universities recently wrapped up a first-ever conference to smoothly transfer students’ credits between the schools.

Ivy Tech Community College in Columbus, IUPUC, Purdue Polytechnic, and Franklin College — along with the Community Education Coalition held their first-ever Transfer Conference at the Columbus Learning Center last month.

They met to discuss transfer options for students in the Columbus, Franklin, Shelbyville, Greensburg, North Vernon, and Seymour communities. The goal is to build a better regional college transfer system and to support student success.

Ivy Tech offers programs called Start as a Sophomore and Transfer as a Junior. The Start as a Sophomore program offers 30-hour under the Indiana College Core, which transfers to all public four-year institutions in the state. There are 13 Transfer as a Junior programs with specific pathways. All those credits are guaranteed to tranfer at any public four-year university.

Jackie Fischer, Ivy Tech’s chancellor of academic affairs said that she is confident the schools can increase college accessibility and degree attainment throughout the region.