The time of learning during the pandemic lockdown has been past, but the aftermath it left for community colleges proves it cannot be ignored.
Transfer enrollments at community colleges have taken a deep dive in the first academic year of the pandemic and the trend continued to a second consecutive year.
“We showed students a different way to take their classes.We are down 22% in enrollment. Across the state, all California colleges, UCs and CSUs are down in enrollment,” Terrance Thompson said. Thompson is the coordinator of LPC’s Career and Transfer Center.
However, the number of students transferring out of Las Positas in the past two academic years have taken a different direction compared to other schools. Rather than significant declines as experienced throughout the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of students transferring from LPC since the 2019-2020 school year has steadily increased.
“We are ranked number five in the state for transfer,” Thompson said.
According to LPC’s Office of Research Planning and Institutional Effectiveness, the number of transfer students at Las Positas have spiked upward after the first pandemic year by 199 students. In sum, 864 students transferred in the 2020-21 academic year compared to 665 in the 2019-20 academic year.
Though the 2019-2020 academic year had fewer transfer students than the year after, it was the first noticeable decline in transfer students for the first time since 2012-2013. Following the 543 transfers in 2011-12, there was a decline by 42 the following year.
The upward trend complements the amount of students transferring to California public universities outside of the Bay Area region, which has increased by 35% from 2019-2020 to 2021-2022.
Contrarily, some nearby California state universities and university of California campuses in the Bay Area have experienced a one-time spike in 2020-2021 before falling in 2021-2022. The exception being San Francisco State, which has experienced a steady amount of students entering from Las Positas.
The current transfer application window for CSUs and UCs has opened up since Oct. 1 and will be available for most campuses until Nov. 30. Some campuses may give extra time to apply for programs they have available for future student attendees.
If you’re planning to apply to a university, visit the transfer center for guidance. The website updates regularly with information about university representatives coming to LPC.
Gibran Beydoun is a copy editor for The Express. Follow him @Gibran580MSCM.
