Highlights

• Higher education experienced a total two-year loss of 296,200 transfer students, or 13.5 percent (nearly 200,000 fewer, or -9.1%, in year 1 and an additional -97,200, or -4.9%, in year 2). All transfer pathways were impacted. Transfer pathways into two-year institutions experienced double-digit rate declines (-21.3% or -113,300 in lateral transfer; -18.0% or -66,900 in reverse transfer). Transfers to four-year institutions also experienced steep declines (-9.7% or -86,000 in upward transfer; -7.6% or -29,900 in lateral transfer).

• The student persistence rate one term after transferring declined across the board and remained below pre-pandemic levels. Year 2, however, showed signs of recovery among younger students (20 or younger), men, bachelor’s degree-seeking students, and at private nonprofit four-year institutions.

• Students over age 20 suffered steeper declines, accounting for 85 percent of all transfer declines during the pandemic (-251,000 out of -296,200). These students declined at more than twice the rate of younger students (-16.2% vs. -7.2% for those 20 or younger).

• White, Black, and Native American transfer students all declined precipitously over the last two years (-163,100, -16.4%; -54,800, -16.4%; -3,100, -15.6%, respectively). For Latinx students, lateral four-year transfers increased but upward transfers declined, and their persistence rates post-transfer declined.

• The pandemic had differential impacts on transfer enrollment for institutions serving specific populations of students. Rural-Serving Institutions (RSIs) did not fall as sharply as Non-RSIs (-51,900, -11.1% vs. -225,800, -15.4%, respectively). HSIs suffered far steeper transfer enrollment declines than HBCUs (-102,400, -16.9% vs. -1,000, -4.2%, respectively).