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NORTH CAROLINA |
North Carolina is largely a public sector state, although it has a strong and well-respected
group of private four-year colleges. The 16 public four-year institutions serve about 39%
of undergraduate students in the state; the 58 public community colleges serve about
43%; and the 43 four-year private colleges enroll about 18% (National Center for Public
Policy and Higher Education, 2000). The state has long prided itself on its low tuition,
and despite recent increases, tuition remains low. In 2001–02, in-state tuition and
mandatory fees at public four-year institutions averaged $2,433 annually, and in-state
tuition for full-time students at community colleges averaged $1,021. The state has been
slow to build need-based state grant programs, presuming that the lowest-income
students’ needs were met through low tuitions and federal grant aid. After tuition rose in
the late 1990s, the state created a grant program for community college students and
another for public four-year students. Roughly a third of new tuition increases are
allocated to these need-based aid programs. The community college grant program was
instituted at the same time that the legislature increased tuition in the community
colleges, specifically to take advantage of the new federal tuition tax credit.
Governance
North Carolina has an unusual governance structure, combining segmental governance
with local boards and statewide planning. The University of North Carolina Board of
Governors is the statewide governing board for all the public four-year institutions, and it
also has statutory responsibility for statewide planning, policy work, and data collection
for all higher education, including the public community colleges and private four-year
institutions. Each of the four-year public campuses also has a local governing board.
The State Board of Community Colleges is the governing board for the 58 public
community colleges. Among the community colleges, some are designated as public
junior colleges and others as industrial education centers, which focus on technical and
vocational education. All the junior colleges have associate degree, diploma, certificate,
and transition programs. In fall 2000, these programs enrolled 170,204 students; of these,
38,369 were in associate degree programs (A.A., A.S., A.F.A.). As described below, the
associate degree programs are articulated with the four-year institutions and are
considered the 2/4 transfer curriculum within the community colleges, although students
enrolled in other programs may also be eligible to transfer to four-year institutions.
Enrollment Planning
North Carolina’s population is expected to grow by 13% in the first decade of this
century, but the projection for growth in the school-age population is closer to 20%. The
state has also placed a priority on increasing the percentage of residents who attend
college. To meet the anticipated enrollment demand, the state is undertaking initiatives
that include strengthening the community college transfer function.
Academic Policies Affecting Transfer
In 1995 the state legislature enacted a comprehensive statewide articulation policy that
had been developed by the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina and
the State Board of the Community Colleges. To strengthen the community college–
baccalaureate transfer function while ensuring the quality of academic completion for
college-level work, the legislation established a general education transfer core
curriculum that applies to all associate degree programs in all of the state’s public
institutions; each four-year campus may also require additional courses for certain
majors. Students who enter community college without having completed the high school
courses required for admission to the University of North Carolina must complete at least
two courses in a foreign language in their A.A. or A.S. program in addition to the general
education transfer core. Transfer students who have completed the core curriculum must
still compete for admission to a four-year college and for acceptance into a major, but
they are not required to complete work beyond that required of all continuing students or
transfer students from four-year institutions.
Data Collection and Accountability
North Carolina maintains comprehensive student tracking systems as well as a
systemwide accountability structure, and reports on both the sending and receiving ends
of 2/4 transfer. Lateral transfer of community college students to either a public or private
four-year college in North Carolina constituted roughly one-third of total transfer activity
in fall 2000. Private college transfers (from both two-year and four-year institutions)
account for less than 10% of transfer activity into UNC institutions, a proportion that has
declined since the early 1990s. According to the UCLA Transfer Assembly Project data,
North Carolina’s statewide 2/4 transfer rate in 1996–97 was slightly above 15% (around
5,000 transfers from a base of 32,000 students who completed 12 units).
North Carolina also monitors the academic performance of two-year students after they
transfer to UNC and reports the performance data to the sending institutions. This
information can be used by the colleges and faculty to evaluate teaching programs, and it
also serves as a statewide accountability measure. For the 1995 cohort, the five-year
baccalaureate graduation rates for 2/4 transfer students in UNC institutions was 72%,
compared with 89% for native UNC students; at the five-year mark, an additional 3% of
transfer students and 2% of native students were still enrolled.
The state has experimented with performance-based budgeting systems for both the
community colleges and UNC, but a tight state budget has constrained allocations for
these initiatives, and the future of performance-based budgeting remains uncertain.
Nonetheless, the structure is in place for both two- and four-year institutions to recognize
transfer performance with funding. One of 12 performance measures for the community
colleges concerns the success of transfer students at the four-year level: the performance
standard requires at least 84% of transfers to attain an overall GPA of at least 2.0 after
completing one year at the UNC institution. The community college performance report
does not include goals for numbers of transfer students. At UNC, one of over 30
performance standards requires the system to maintain or increase transfer rates of
students who earn an associate degree.
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