The presidents of University at Albany and Schenectady County Community College on Monday hailed a new agreement that aims to ease student transfers from the community college into 46 UAlbany programs.
The agreement, signed at SCCC on Monday by UAlbany interim President Jim Stellar and SCCC President Steady Moono, spells out which SCCC programs set a student up to move “seamlessly” into a similar degree program at UAlbany. For those programs, once a student completes a course of study at SCCC, they automatically transfer into UAlbany with two years of credits and on track to graduate in four years if they keep up the pace.
“It shows you don’t have to leave the Capital Region, not because of a lack of an option,” Moono said of students looking to transfer to four-year schools after leaving SCCC.
Stellar and Moono said the transfer agreement builds on the existing partnership between the schools while providing greater clarity to students considering splitting their college years between the schools. Above all, the presidents said, the agreement gives students what they expect to have: a simple transition from one SUNY school to another.
“It’s the way our students think we should behave,” Stellar said.
Under the agreement, around two dozen SCCC degrees feed directly into 46 UAlbany degree programs. While UAlbany has similar agreements with Hudson Valley Community College, SUNY Adirondack and one recently announced with SUNY Cobleskill, Stellar said the agreement announced Monday was the largest in the university’s portfolio.
It takes effect immediately and will help recent SCCC graduates heading to UAlbany in the fall – around 50 recent SCCC graduates have already put down money to attend UAlbany next school year, according to SCCC officials. Over the past five years, around 300 SCCC students have transferred to UAlbany.
Students who earn liberal arts degrees from SCCC, for example, can automatically transfer into anthropology, art and art history, economics, English and geography programs at UAlbany. The transfer agreement establishes similar “pathways” in business, science, criminal justice and education.
Categories: -News-, Schenectady County
