UC has a plan to make it easier for community college students to transfer. Critics say it’s still not enough

The University of California has proposed a new pathway for community college students across the state — one that guarantees admission into one of UC’s nine campuses for those who qualify. But the plan has been met with mixed reactions from lawmakers, with some worried it doesn’t go far enough to simplify the process for students hoping to transfer to a four-year school.

The proposal, introduced earlier this week at the State Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance, comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom in January called on UCLA either to join the university system’s existing transfer guarantee program or forfeit $20 million in state funding. That’s despite the fact that last fall, UCLA enrolled more community college students than any other campus, according to university data.

With the right set of courses and GPA requirements, UC’s new program would enable California community college students to apply for the campus of their choice — and if they aren’t admitted there, they would automatically be accepted at UC Santa Cruz, Riverside or Merced. Today, just six of the nine UC campuses participate in a guaranteed admission program, with UCLA, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego — the schools with the highest demand — being the last holdouts.

But in its current iteration, the UC plan would differ from the admission requirements for California State University.

“It still unnecessarily complicates the process and muddies the water,” said Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento). “We should just have one universal, streamlined path for individuals who want to go from community college to either a UC or CSU.”

CSU has had guaranteed admission for community college students based on another set of criteria for over a decade, utilizing their Associate Degree for Transfer pathway. During the 2019-20 academic year, more than 28,000 new transfer students enrolled at CSU through that program, representing nearly half of all community college transfer students at CSU.

Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), said that having these two different processes — one for UC, another for CSU — “appears contradictory to our recent progress to streamline and ensure greater collaboration between California’s higher education systems.”

A UC spokesperson later clarified that the proposal will “be further refined in consultation with the Governor and state legislative leaders as we consider a range of options to meet our shared goal of achieving a more accessible transfer pathway for prospective UC students.”

Murari Ganesan, a student studying business at Ohlone College in Fremont, said he personally didn’t have any issues with the UC transferring process. To finish out his bachelor’s degree in economics, Ganesan applied to most of the UC schools with just one application. He’s now waiting to hear back to find out where he’ll land next fall.

But, he said, navigating the transfer process might not be as easy for everyone.

“(Having just one pathway for CSU and UC) would make this better, because then there’s only one system community college transfers need to be informed about,” Ganesan said. “That makes transferring simpler, more accessible and more equitable, because then there’s only one system that students have to learn to navigate.”

Omolala Atolagbe, a student working toward her master’s degree by taking classes at Oakland’s Laney College, said that the vast majority of her peers opt for transferring into CSU instead of UC. The reasons behind that are twofold, she said. The UC system has a more tedious transfer process, and students fear they won’t get into a UC campus. Despite that, Atolagbe, who received her bachelor’s in Nigeria, will be applying to transfer to UCLA to finish her advanced degree.

“Often, people feel like they won’t qualify for UC schools, especially Berkeley or UCLA,” said Atolagbe. “That makes me sad, because I’m like, ‘I’ve seen what you can do, and I know what you can do.’ I wish they didn’t see the school as a giant that they can’t take down.”

For lawmakers and students alike, getting that pathway right is paramount. From 2019 to 2022, California’s community colleges recorded a 17% drop in student enrollment — culminating in the lowest numbers in three decades, according to data from the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. During the same time period, university data showed the number of community college students transferring to the UC system dropped by 7%.

“We don’t have enough community college transfers, so, duh. Let’s focus on making it easier for community college students to transfer,” said McCarty.