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Governance
Arkansas has an institutional governance structure, with individual governing boards for
each of the public two- and four-year institutions, and a statewide coordinating agency
for higher education whose director is a member of the governor’s cabinet. The statewide
coordinating board, the Higher Education Coordinating Board, has the authority to
approve institutional role and scope and new degree programs. The coordinating board
makes recommendations on the budget and is responsible for managing 12 state
scholarship programs. Total state funding for need-based and merit-based student aid is
$46 million. Of the 23 public two-year colleges, 7 are affiliated with and under the
governance structure of a four-year institution. Roughly half of the two-year colleges
have chosen to have an elected board; the rest chose to have an appointed board. The
Department of Workforce Education in the Department of Education is responsible for
state regulation of vocational and technical institutions.
Enrollment Planning
Arkansas expects to have flat or declining demand for higher education in the next
decade, as the number of high school graduates is projected to decline slightly. Thus, the
state’s plans for higher education focus more on improving quality and access rather than
on expanding capacity. The two-year colleges have been the fastest-growing sector in the
last few years, in part owing to legislation in 1991 that was designed to strengthen both
the 2/4 transfer and the economic development and community educational roles of the
two-year colleges.
Academic Policies Affecting Transfer
Arkansas has also focused on improving high school academic completion for college
and reducing remediation at the college level. A statewide remediation law requires all
students scoring below 19 on the ACT examination to be tested and placed, if necessary,
in remedial courses. Both two-year and four-year colleges offer remedial courses.
Data Collection and Accountability
Arkansas uses a student-based tracking system for annual reports that document
retention, transfer, and graduation activity for cohorts of entering first-time freshmen for
up to six years. For first-time, full-time community college students who entered in 1992
and then transferred, 33% had obtained some form of degree or certificate by the five-
year mark: 18% held a certificate, 13% an associate degree, and 2% a bachelor’s degree.
(Comparable figures for students at public four-year colleges were associate degrees, 2%;
bachelor’s degrees, 25%.) Statewide data are not available for students who successfully
transfer but do not obtain a degree or certificate, or for students who attend school part-
time. There is no consistent statewide measurement or reporting of transfer rates, and
success in 2/4 transfer is not tied to funding for either the two- or four-year institutions.
Private college transfers are not included in state reporting. The 2/4 transfer rate
calculated by the UCLA Transfer Assembly Project is relatively high—38%—because
only 24% of first-time students are counted in the Transfer Assembly base (students who
have completed at least 12 units).
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State legislation on transfer, enacted in 1991, established a statewide mandatory transfer
core curriculum, now in place at all public institutions. Individual institutions may vary
the specific course titles in the curriculum, and may require additional course work or
specific grades for transfer. Students who complete the core courses at a two-year college
know that the credits will be accepted and counted toward the general education
requirements at the receiving four-year institution, and students who earn an associate
degree know that all units will be accepted and that they will be admitted with upper-
division standing.
