Strategic Transfer Engagement Plan (STEP)

STEP creates opportunities for connection, so students can engage with representatives from their selected 4-year institution earlier in their academic career to increase access to the resources and campus at their primary transfer destination to increase the likelihood of enrolling in and completing a bachelor’s degree program. Additionally, through STEP the administrative work of having to resubmit documents that the student has already submitted to CT State is removed by seamlessly migrating transcripts and immunization records to the primary transfer destination that the student indicates on their STEP Transfer Intent Form. Removing barriers for students is critical for transfer student persistence and the STEP program is designed to identify and remove roadblocks that could prevent a student from continuing to a 4-year institution in pursuit of obtaining their bachelor’s degree.  

Connecticut’s community college students are more likely to come from minoritized and marginalized communities than students at our state universities. Like their peers at the state universities, they are overwhelmingly seeking bachelor’s degrees – yet most of them never transfer to a four-year school. STEP removes barriers and streamlines the process for students with the aim to increase baccalaureate attainment for CT State Community College students within the CSCU system. 

Students with 61+ credits accepted by CSUs who graduate within three years have three times the success rate of students with 15 or fewer credits. Increasing the number of transfer students in our own system will make a significant difference in the number of students earning life-changing degrees from CSCU four-year institutions.

"If we increase the number of students who transfer to a CSCU four-year institution by just 1%, more than 100 additional students would graduate with a bachelor’s degree from our system every year. Research shows that the returns to investing in higher education are substantial. The economic return to the average CSCU graduate with a bachelor’s degree exceeds $1 million over a 40-year career, but few consider the non-economic benefits such as more thoughtful citizens, better public schools, and healthier individuals and communities. Public economic benefits include higher tax revenues, increased worker productivity, and lower public expenditures for health, social service, law enforcement and correctional spending. Ninety-six percent of CSCU students are from Connecticut. Increased baccalaureate attainment rates are a benefit to the students that we serve and the communities of Connecticut where our CSCU graduates live and work."

- CSCU Chancellor Terrence Cheng