Alexandria, VA – Community colleges provide a strong foundation for the nation's graduating STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) workforce. In its latest Geoscience Currents, the American Geosciences Institute documents the flow of geoscience students from 2–year to 4-year institutions in Texas, adding to an earlier report on similar data from California released in 2012.
In 2012, 70 percent of geoscience students in Texas public universities had transferred from Community Colleges. In particular, Texas A&M University admitted students from 32 community colleges statewide, followed closely by Texas Tech which admitted students from 25 2-year institutions. However, the majority of 4-year institutions demonstrated direct transfer from five, or fewer, local community colleges.
These findings have implications both federally and at the state-level by helping identify which 2-year institutions may benefit from funding to promote research experiences for community college students and faculty. This can also help 4-year institutions forge stronger relationships with their feeder colleges to ensure smoother transitions for transferring intuitions.
Source: American Geosciences Institute