North Carolina State University (NC State) is finding success with a program designed to increase access to its institution for low-to-moderate-income and first-generation community college students.
The Raleigh-based university has implemented a transfer dual-enrollment program, Community College Collaboration (C3), designed to provide students, specifically in rural communities in North Carolina, access to an NC State degree. The program launched in August 2018, with the first cohort of students accepted for the 2019 spring semester.
“What’s helping to make this program successful is the collaboration,” said Martha Harmening, director of the C3 program. “Collaboration is not just a part of our name but it’s something we are really intentional about.”
The program’s 10 partner schools include Alamance Community College, Central Carolina Community College, Durham Technical Community College, Johnston Community College, Nash Community College, Robeson Community College, Sampson Community College, Vance-Granville Community College, Wake Technical Community College and Wilson Community College.
With the goal of making the transfer process easier, the C3 program provides each student with an NC State advisor who visits their community college campus once or twice a semester for face-to-face support.
NC State also offers students access to various resources such as online degree audit and course planning tools. This allows students to identify the courses needed in order to fulfill both the associate degree and NC State’s bachelor’s degree requirements.
“Students are getting on track more quickly so that they are only taking courses that will count towards their NC State degree and not have a lot of courses fall off into non-degree credit,” said Harmening.
