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5 Delaware Campuses Shift Online To Simplify Transfer Management

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 10/25/10

Several institutions of higher education in Delaware will be implementing a college transfer service run by AcademyOne to help students and their advisors determine how coursework will transfer among the state's colleges and universities. Three public and two independent schools will be moving onto CollegeTransfer.net this year.

In January 2010 a committee of the state's Higher Education Office met for a presentation of the AcademyOne service. At that time, the committee was looking to have all six public institutions in the state pilot the service. Those that have decided to use the service include Delaware Technical & Community College, Delaware State University, and the University of Delaware, as well as Wilmington University and Wesley College.

The committee is part of the P20 council, a state group leading efforts to simplify transfer in Delaware. Co-chaired by Lillian Lowery, secretary of education, and Teri Quinn Gray, president of the State Board of Education, the council works to coordinate transitions from early childhood to post-secondary education.

"The addition of AcademyOne will simplify navigating the path to college for Delaware students and parents and at the same time will provide an easy to use, behind the scenes approval process for the higher education institutions that will automatically update the user interface," said Gray.

"If we hope to meet President [Obama's] goal of 60 percent higher education attainment, Delaware will need to see an annual increase in associate and bachelor's degrees of 6.3 percent--that is an increase of 821 degrees each year," added Lowery.

The Web-based service being adopted at the five schools provides a replacement for paper-based transfer information and in-person advisor appointments. University students and staff can access information on social networks such as Facebook and mobile devices.

"We're looking forward to being able to provide our students with 24/7 access to up-to-date course descriptions and course transfer information for those who want to transfer to other Delaware institutions as well as regional colleges," said Lauretta Cooper, articulation coordinator at Delaware Tech. "It will also be a simple way for students to navigate the more than 100 program-to-program articulation agreements available to students." The community college develops these agreements through its Connected Degree Program, which allows students to complete the first two years of a bachelor's degree at Delaware Tech and then be accepted as juniors at a four-year institution.