Buena Vista University is among 17 Iowa colleges and universities that are receiving a grant to make it easier to transfer from a community college to a private college or a university in Iowa.
The three-year grant is being awarded by the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and the Teagle Foundation to members of the Iowa Private Transfer Collaborative, which includes BVU. The 350-thousand-dollar grant is part of the foundations’ shared Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts initiative. The grant will fund work across the state aimed at bringing together faculty from community colleges and four-year institutions to ensure the seamless transfer of academic credits, and placing a greater emphasis on the retention rate for transfer students from community colleges to four-year institutions.
According to the Iowa Department of Education’s 2022 Fall Enrollment Report, fall enrollment across Iowa’s community colleges increased by six-tenths of a percent from 2021. This is Iowa’s first increase in community college enrollment since 2010. Community college enrollment decreased nationally last year by four-tenths of a percent.
