Agreement allows transfer students to earn associate’s degree at EWU

An agreement between Eastern Washington University and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges will make it easier for community college students to earn their associate degree after they’ve transferred to a four-year school.

The agreement allows students who are lacking enough credits for a two-year degree to go ahead and transfer to a four-year college, then apply credits earned there back to community college to finish their associate degree.

Neil Woolf associate vice president for enrollment management at EWU, said the arrangement is a safety net for students.

Nationally, Woolf said, only 15 percent of students who start at a community college end up graduating with a bachelor’s degree. In the fall of 2015, 55 percent of EWU’s 1,295 transfer students didn’t have an associate degree.

Students coming to EWU will be able to choose to participate in the program, he said. EWU will then communicate with the community colleges and automatically transfer any earned credits.