Let’s Talk Transfer: Highlights from the May 2025 discussion

Data best practices for transfer articulation

On Tuesday, May 20, CollegeSource hosted another session of Let’s Talk Transfer, our community discussion series that invites all transfer professionals (regardless of whether they use CollegeSource products) to share their expertise and ask questions on transfer-related topics.

Discussing transfer data at the May 20, 2025, session of Let’s Talk Transfer.

CollegeSource Annual Conference prize winners announced

This month, Let’s Talk Transfer registrants who are employees of institutions with a current subscription or license to a CollegeSource product were invited to enter a contest to win a free registration to the 2025 CollegeSource Annual Conference. The conference, which will be held in San Diego, CA, from June 16 to 19, will feature over sixty breakout sessions, interactive panel discussions, meals and activities, two receptions, and pre-conference and certification opportunities.

Tim and Sarah started the session by announcing the winners, who were chosen at random. Congratulations to our winners from the University of Montana and California Baptist University – we look forward to seeing you at the conference!

Topic of discussion

This month’s discussion centered around data best practices for transfer articulation. It was noted that institutions are quite busy over the summer admitting transfer students for the fall, updating equivalencies and articulation agreements in the face of curriculum changes, and—if time allows—proactively reviewing courses from top partner schools.

Attendees engaged in conversation regarding how best to:

• • Ensure transfer credit keeps getting evaluated when faculty are off contract in the summer.
  • Format transfer course codes in articulation rules (most attendees reported using the formatting on the transcript).
  • Document the awarding of credit for prior learning experiences (such as high school courses) on institutional transcripts.
  • Analyze whether courses included in articulation agreements have undergone curriculum changes.

Additionally, one institution asked for guidance on whether, when moving to a new system, it’s better to undertake a substantial “clean up” of transfer articulation data or start anew. Attendees detailed their experiences with clean-up projects and offered tips on how to determine what data is worth retaining. Tim noted the importance of understanding the impact of the interaction of non-course data within the Student Information System on student records when considering deleting data. Other attendees agreed about being careful about deleting data and, no matter what, creating documentation so as not to lose historical information.

Breakout rooms

After the group discussion, attendees headed into breakout rooms hosted by CollegeSource and members of its Client Advisory Board (CAB). Discussion groups were formed based on the CollegeSource product or the Student Information System attendees used for transfer evaluation, and included:

• • uAchieve
  • PeopleSoft
  • Colleague
  • Banner
  • Other

Sarah stayed in the main room and answered questions about managing transfer equivalencies in TES. General transfer questions were also broached, such as whether institutions evaluate a course over its lifespan or from the time the student transferring it in took it.  

Watch the recording

Register now to access the May 20 recording, including the transcript, chat log, and breakout session recordings.

Upon accessing the recording, please see the sidebar transcript for the link to view breakouts.

Join us live in July

The next session of Let’s Talk Transfer will take place on July 15 and will focus on articulation agreements.

If you previously registered for the series, the Zoom link provided can be used to access all future sessions, and you will receive email reminders about the individual sessions. If you haven’t yet registered, see the link below. Recordings will be available for those unable to attend.