Building Relationships Between Two-Year and 4-year Colleges

Dr. Nancy Blattner, President, Caldwell University, and Steve Adubato discuss “reverse transfer” agreements with 2-year institutions where credits are transferred from a four-year institution to a two-year institution and the importance of the relationships between two and four-year colleges.

10/6/18 #3124

Excerpt:

"We're pleased to be joined by Doctor Nancy Blattner, President of Caldwell University. Good to see you Doctor. Nice to be here with you Steve. Thank you. We just had a really terrific conversation with Doctor Blattner, three other university presidents, talking about the future of higher ed. By the way, what was your biggest takeaway from that conversation? But go online, you'll see our website, www.SteveAdubato.org if you want to see that program if you missed it on the air. I think the biggest takeaway was that all of us, despite the fact that we represent a variety of different types of institutions, we all have very common goals, we all want to see the same thing for the citizens of New Jersey, and that we're all willing to collaborate. I think that's critically important because I think sometimes people have the impression that we're all very competitive and cutthroat, and I think, as Doctor Houshmand said, you know, there are times when we… From Rowan University? Yes. We have to be competitive, we do offer similar programs at times, but there is plenty of room for everyone at the table, and that's what I think the takeaway was, that we're willing to work together. Doctor Blattner, one of the things we did not talk about in that forum that I want to talk about here, is the relationship between two-year institutions of higher learning and four-year institutions of higher learning, particularly because Governor Murphy is talking extensively about the desire to make community county college free in many cases. Two and four-year institutions in competition? No, I think they can be great collaborative partners. Break it down. And... sure. So one of the things that I think came out of the Affordability Commission that I served on, and it concluded in 2016... College affordability? Yes. A commission that was impaneled under our previous governor, was that we needed to work collaboratively between two and four-year institutions to design what's called a reverse transfer articulation process, and the State Senate and Assembly signed a bill, actually in July last year in 2017, that really asked that all institutions, four-year institutions, working in collaboration with the Secretary of Higher Education and the New Jersey President's Council, would work toward entering into these agreements. So maybe I can just explain a little bit about what this is. Sure. So there are many students that will start their educational careers at a two-year institution, and for whatever reason, it could be a change of location, it could be a whole host of things, they leave the two-year institution, they go on to a four-year institution, but they don't complete the bach..."