CPE and University of Kentucky Partner to Elevate Student Voice in Transfer Research

December 03, 2025

The Kentucky Student Success Collaborative (KYSSC), an initiative of the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE), is partnering with the University of Kentucky to better understand why some community college graduates stop short of earning a bachelor’s degree.   

Led by Dr. Jungmin Lee, associate professor at the University of Kentucky College of Education, this 12-month qualitative research project will explore the experiences of KCTCS associate degree completers who did not transfer to a university the following academic year. The $25,000 project is funded by a grant from the James Graham Brown Foundation.

"We want to understand what factors — personal, institutional, or systemic — prevent students from continuing their education after successfully earning an associate degree,” said Dr. Lee, the project’s principal investigator.

The National Student Clearinghouse Tracking Transfer Report found that about a third (34.3%) of all entering students who started at a community college in fall 2017 transferred to a four-year institution within six years. Of those who transferred, just over half (52.2%) earned a bachelor’s degree. In Kentucky, the transfer-out rate for the fall 2017 cohort was 33.2%, on par with the national average.  The bachelor’s completion rate of transfers was 46.0%, which lags the national average by about 6 percentage points. 

Through the project, KYSSC hopes to gain a better understanding of transfer intentions, and potential statewide strategies to improve student transitions, retention and degree completion. The project will provide a comprehensive picture of the transfer student experience. The research team will:   

• Survey recent KCTCS graduates who completed an associate degree but did not transfer.
• Conduct focus groups with academic advisors, faculty and transfer personnel at all of Kentucky’s public colleges and universities.
• Interview at least 30 KCTCS graduates across the state to capture nuanced experiences and barriers. 
• Review institutional websites to ensure transfer-related information is clear and accessible.  

“This work reflects our ongoing commitment to access and student success across Kentucky,” said Dr. Lilly Massa McKinley, KYSSC executive director and assistant vice president at CPE. “When we center student voices in policy and design, we build systems that better serve all learners.”

The research team met with transfer stakeholder groups — including representatives from public universities and KCTCS colleges — to share the research scope, discuss implementation strategies, and gather input on project timelines and student outreach. Staff and faculty focus groups are currently being held with student surveys and interviews planned for Spring 2026.

At the same time, KYSSC is developing a cohort-based transfer dashboard, set to launch later this month. The dashboard seeks to provide statewide visibility into the complex transfer student pipeline — tracking movement between institutions, progress toward degree completion and key student outcomes.   

“Taken together, the dashboard and qualitative research project create a complementary, data-informed strategy that combines quantitative analysis with students’ lived experiences. This approach will help campuses, funders and policymakers better understand where students thrive, where they struggle and how Kentucky can remove barriers to help more transfer students reach their goals,” said Stephanie Cheung, KYSSC Associate Director leading the transfer strategy.

The Kentucky Student Success Collaborative will share preliminary findings at CPE’s Student Success Summit, Mar. 23-24, 2026, at the University of Louisville's Swain Student Activities Center.