I. Introduction

This report provides a profile of transfer students admitted to Simon Fraser University from B.C. Colleges over the past five years, from 1991/92 to 1995/96. Transfer students represent approximately one third of Simon Fraser's new student admissions.

A general overview of transfer students is presented, followed by an analysis of academic performance at SFU and concluding with a look at students who graduated. Inter-college comparisons are displayed and where appropriate, comparisons with students admitted directly from B.C. secondary schools are provided.

Section A provides a general profile of transfer students by:
Section B presents academic performance indicators for transfer students by:
In Section C, we examine for those transfer students who have graduated:

DEFINITIONS

B.C. College transfer students in this report are defined as those admitted to Simon Fraser University from 1991/92 to 1995/96 with a minimum of a full year of transferable work, a minimum 2.00 GPA admission average, and who did not withdraw during their first semester at SFU.

B.C. Direct Entry Grade 12's are those students admitted to SFU on the basis of B.C. secondary school completion and who entered SFU within one year of high school graduation.

The student's B.C. College of transfer is deemed to be the institution from which the most credits were transferred. 17 colleges are represented in this report and are organized by region:


Several data files were extracted from the SFU Student Information System for the analysis presented in this report. the Appendix 1 documents the data definitions for these files.


ANALYSIS

A. Profile of B.C. College Transfer Students:

 Over the five year period ending in the spring semester, 1996, a total of 8,684 students were admitted to SFU from B.C. Colleges (36% of all new students admitted to SFU during that time). As shown in Table 1, 79% of the transfer students came from public lower mainland colleges, 7% came from the Interior/Kootenays, 5% from lower mainland private colleges, 4% from Vancouver Island, and 4% from Northern B.C.

Figures 1 and 3 indicate that four lower mainland public colleges (Douglas, Kwantlen, Langara and Capilano) provided SFU with three quarters of all transfer students. Okanagan University College, who provided 3% of all transfer students to SFU, was the largest source outside the lower mainland.

Figure 2 shows the distribution of transfer students admitted to SFU by college region and year. Over the past five years, the number of B.C. college transfers has ranged from a low of 1,475 in 1992/93 to a high of 2,256 in 1994/95. In 1995/96, there was a sharp decline in the number of students admitted from B.C. colleges (31% decrease over 1994/95). This was due to a reduction in admission quotas for all categories of students as SFU attempted to reduce enrollments to conform with funded FTE targets.

The distribution of college transfers by region has changed over the past five years. In 1991/92 81.4% of transfer students came from the lower mainland. This increased to 87.6% in 1995/96.

B.C. College transfer students may transfer a maximum of 60 credits to SFU. Table 2 shows the distribution of transfer students by the number of credits transferred and by college. 40% of students transfer between 30 and 44 credits, 56% transfer 45 or more credits, and the remainder transfer fewer than 30 credits. This is roughly consistent across colleges, with the exception of Lower Mainland private colleges in which fewer credits were transferred (71% of private college students transferred between 30 and 44 credits to SFU).

As shown in Table 3, B.C. College transfer students were more likely to register for 9 credit hours in their first semester at SFU than any other number of credits, while B.C. Grade 12 Direct Entry students were most likely to register for 12 credits. By defining a full-time student as one who registers for 12 or more credits in a semester, we find that 32% of B.C. College transfer students over the past five years were full-time, compared to 75% of B.C. Grade 12 Direct Entry students. In looking at the distribution of full-time and part-time students by college region, we see that a much smaller proportion of Lower Mainland students registered full-time (27%) than students from outside the Lower Mainland (57%).

Upon admission to SFU, students specify their degree goal in one of five faculties (see Table 4). With the Faculty of Arts being the largest, it is not surprising that 56% of B.C. College transfers chose a credential in the Faculty of Arts. The second most popular choice was in the Faculty of Business Administration (21%), followed by Applied Sciences (8%), Education (8%) and Science (7%). By comparison, B.C. Grade 12 Direct Entry students were more inclined to enter the Sciences than transfer students. By Faculty, B.C. Grade 12's chose: Arts (40%), Science (24%), Applied Sciences (16%), Business Administration (16%) and then Education (4%).

From 1991/92 to 1995/96, 8,684 transfer students sought 8,789 credentials (students may pursue more than one credential). The top three most popular credentials chosen as an initial degree goal were: Bachelor of Arts (55%), Bachelor of Business Administration (21%) and Bachelor of Science (10%). See Table 5 for a distribution of all credentials sought and the corresponding admission GPA.

Based on transferable college work, the average admission grade point average was 2.98 among college transfer students. Those intending to pursue a Bachelor of Applied Science had the highest admission GPA at 3.33. Refer to Table 9 for a distribution of all admission GPA's for B.C. College transfers.

As students proceed through their education at SFU, they will declare one or more major programs of study (see Table 6). Overall for the past five years, the top four most popular majors of choice were: Business (14%), General Studies (12%), Psychology (10%) and Education (10%). Business Administration was a popular choice among students from each of the college regions, with the exception of Northern B.C. where only 3% chose Business. Other popular majors of choice included Criminology by students from Camosun and Malaspina Colleges and Economics by students from Lower Mainland private colleges.

As shown in Table 7, 63% of B.C. college transfer students were aged 20 to 24 upon admission to SFU, for an overall average age of 22.7. By comparison, 96% of B.C. Grade 12 Direct Entry students were younger than 20, averaging age 18.0 upon admission to SFU. By college region, the oldest students came from Northern B.C. with an average age of 24.3 and the youngest came from Private Lower Mainland colleges with an average age of 21.5.

In looking at the distribution of B.C. College transfer students by gender, over half (57%) are females. By comparison 54% of B.C. Direct Entry Grade 12's are female. As shown in Table 8, the gender breakdown in each college region is roughly consistent with the overall distribution, with the exception of Northern B.C., in which 70% of the transfers were female. The representation of females exceeds 50% in all colleges except for Okanagan University College where 48% are females.

B. Academic Performance:

 While admission GPA's by credential sought are shown in Table 5, the distribution of all admission GPA's is shown in Table 9. The average admission GPA was 2.98 and the median (50th percentile) grade point average upon admission was 2.91. Of all B.C. College transfers, 83% were admitted with a GPA of 2.50 or higher, 35% at 3.00 or higher, 9% at 3.50 or higher and 1% at 4.00 or higher.

Table 10 shows the academic performance of all 8,684 B.C. College transfer students at four junctures in their education at SFU: (1) Admission, (2) completion of the first SFU semester, (3) completion of 30 SFU credits, and (4) graduation from SFU. The overall GPA's at each these four time periods were 2.98, 2.50, 2.76 and 2.91 respectively.

Excluding colleges with fewer than 50 students represented, the highest grade point averages were attained by: (1) Malaspina College, 3.10 upon admission; (2) Northern Lights, 2.89 after the first semester; (3) New Caledonia College, 2.98 after 30 credit hours; (4) University/College of the Fraser Valley, 3.11 upon graduation.

Table 11A provides information on the academic performance in selected courses. The average grade received by all B.C. College transfers was consistently lower than the grade received by B.C. Grade 12's, except in a few courses (Cmns 215, Educ 230, Educ 24, Fren 301 and Psyc 351). Out of the 45 courses selected for analysis, students admitted from the University/College of the Fraser Valley received the highest average grade in 62% of the courses.

Table 11B compares the admission GPA and course grade in the 200- and 300-level courses taken by B.C. College transfer students and B.C. Direct Entry Grade 12 students. In looking at the most popular second- and third-year courses taken by transfer students, the most common ones completed were: Buec 333, Psyc 201, Bus 237 and Buec 232. The average grade received by college transfers was lower than the grade received by secondary school students. In the courses completed by at least 100 B.C. College transfer students, the average course grade was 2.66 for college transfers and 2.86 for Direct Entry B.C. Grade 12's.

By following the academic performance of 3,006 B.C. College transfer students admitted to SFU in 1991/92 and 1992/93 from admission through to graduation, it was found that 92% completed at least 30 credit hours and 47% graduated with at least one degree (see Table 12).

From this cohort, the colleges with a degree completion rate exceeding 60% included: Coquitlam College (68%, N=65), Malaspina College (63%, N=72) and Okanagan University/College (61%, N=143). All Northern B.C. Colleges had a degree completion rate below 40%: Northern Lights (21%, N=19), Northwest Community College (25%, N=32) and New Caledonia College (32%, N=88).

There is a positive relationship between the number of credits a student transferred to SFU and the degree completion rate. The degree completion rate increased from a low of 38% among those who transferred fewer than 30 credits to SFU, to a high of 52% among those who transferred more than 55 credits.

As shown in Table 13, the 2,206 transfer students who graduated from SFU had a graduation CGPA of 2.91, while 433 Direct Entry B.C. Grade 12's had an SFU graduation CGPA of 3.05. In looking only at the last 60 hours at SFU prior to graduation, the graduation CGPA was 2.93 for B.C. College transfer students and 3.15 for Direct Entry B.C. Grade 12's. The graduation GPA distributions are shown graphically in Figure 4.

C. Profile of Graduates:

 While Table 10 showed the academic performance of all 8,684 transfer students, Table 14 shows the academic performance of only those 2,206 transfers who have graduated. In looking at each of the four junctures in their SFU education, the average GPA's were: (1) 3.01 upon admission to SFU; (2) 2.74 after one semester at SFU; (3) 2.82 after completing 30 credit hours at SFU, and ; (4) 2.91 upon graduation from SFU. Upon comparison to the GPA's for all transfer students (2.98, 2.50, 2.76 and 2.91) in Table 10, we note that students who have graduated have a consistently higher performance than the cohort of graduates and non-graduates combined.

Excluding colleges with fewer than 50 students represented, the highest grade point average at each of the four stages can be identified. Students from Okanagan University College received the highest GPA upon admission (3.11). Students from University/College of the Fraser Valley attained the highest GPA's at the next three stages: 3.00 after the first semester, 3.11 after 30 credit hours, and 3.11 upon graduation.

Table 15 shows the distribution of programs from which B.C. College transfers graduated. By comparing the four most popular programs from which students graduated against the most commonly declared majors we see a similar match in the distributions: Business Administration (14% declared, 17% graduated), Psychology (10% declared, 11% graduated), Education (10% declared, 9% graduated) and Economics (4% declared, 7% graduated). In the case of General Studies, however, 12% of students declared this program and only 6% of graduates received a General Studies degree.

As shown in Table 16, of those college transfer students admitted to SFU from 1991/92 to 1995/96, a total of 2,363 students graduated with 2,743 credentials, of which 80% were degrees, 12% were certificates and 8% were Professional Development Program Certificates. Second degrees/certificates obtained subsequent to the first one were excluded. The most common degrees which college transfers graduate with include: Bachelor of Arts (51%), Bachelor of Business Administration (15%), Bachelor of General Studies (5%) and Bachelor of Science (5%).

On average, B.C. College transfer students take 8.7 semesters to complete a degree, as measured from time of admission to SFU until the semester of graduation from a first degree (see Table 17). The shortest time to completion, 8.5 semesters, was achieved by Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Business Administration graduates. The longest time to completion was experienced by Bachelor of Applied Science graduates at 13.0 semesters.




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