Central Valley Transfer Project

Excerpt from the Complete College America full report: “Set Up to Succeed — Meeting California’s Postsecondary Education Attainment Goal” (the CVHEC Central Valley Transfer Project is featured on page 28).

In 2018, UC Merced realized it was not fulfilling one of its original missions to serve transfer students from California’s central valley. To increase the number of transfers from community colleges, UC Merced partnered with Bakersfield College, Merced College, and the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) to begin exploring an intersegmental approach to increasing transfer students from the central valley. At the time, ADT requirements were designed to fulfill general education admission requirements to CSU but not to UC, resulting in the possibility that students who transferred to UC Merced could lose credit hours. To help UC Merced meet its goal while increasing certificate and degree attainment rates in the region, CVHEC, which consists of 28 members including community college districts, public four-year institutions, and independent universities, launched the Central Valley Transfer Project in 2019 as a pilot project to explore new strategies to increase transfer rates.

Initially CVHEC brought together faculty from UC Merced, Bakersfield College, and Merced College to examine transfer requirements. They held very detailed meetings, examining syllabi and course content to determine alignment between ADT requirements and course requirements at UC for successful degree completion. The goal was to build pathways and create seamless transfer processes for students. At the conclusion of this initial phase of the Central Valley Transfer Project, multiple pathways were established between the three institutions. (CSU Bakersfield also participated in this initial project phase.)

Today, as new institutions come on board, the work proceeds in two phases, with support from CVHEC. The first phase is curricular work to create course maps. After the community college selects the ADTs it wishes to focus on, representatives from the community college and four-year institution meet to review the ADTs for alignment with four-year requirements, identifying gaps, articulation issues, and other barriers to transfer.

Key to the success of the work is identifying the right people from each institution to build the pathways. The teams typically involve an administrator (who serves as project manager), an academic leader, an adviser/counselor from the community college, faculty including curriculum chairs from both the community college and the four-year institution, and a vice provost from the four-year institution to help with the course articulation.

Once the teams have created these paths, phase two involves the technical work of putting the maps in an interactive tool called the Program Pathways Mapper (PPM). Through this tool, which is public and does not require a password, students can learn about different academic programs and how they align with expected employment outcomes. For each program of study, students, parents, counselors, and advisers are able to see an entire term-by-term plan that encompasses all general education and major requirements from the community college through the four-year institution.

With facilitation by CVHEC, including grant funding for schools to implement PPM, the project has grown. In Central Valley, 10 of 15 community colleges, three CSUs, and UC Merced are participating. And the program is showing results. At UC Merced, transfer applications increased by almost 5,000 applicants between fall 2018 and fall 2022. And since PPM was implemented, students who graduate with an ADT take almost 3.5 fewer credits on average, saving time and money.

See introduction by Tom Burke.

See the Complete College America report, “Set Up to Succeed — Meeting California’s Postsecondary Education Attainment Goal,” Playbook released March 3, 2026. CVHEC April newsletter introduction by Tom Burke, CVHEC  Central Valley Transfer Project lead.