Miami Dade College and Florida International University administrators, faculty, and transfer student develop student personas

For Miami Dade College and Florida International University, the past year has been a collaborative push to address one question: How might Miami Dade College and Florida International University design pathways to increase successful STEM student transfers and improve graduation rates?  An estimated 8,000 STEM-focused students start at Miami Dade College annually, only 400 STEM students graduate from Florida International University (the leading transfer partner school) with a bachelor’s degree.  

Along with students, faculty, and administrators from both institutions, we embarked on a year-long design process to better understand the transfer student experience, culminating in a pilot concept.

TRANSFERmation is a guided pathway for STEM students that optimizes their learning experience and outcomes. Teams from both schools designed this pilot during the year-long Seamless Transfer Pathways Design Challenge. TRANSFERmation will provide students with access to a holistic, proscribed interactive degree plan that visualizes their entire journey from a Miami Dade Shark to a FIU Panther, and into their career of choice.  They could argue that each institution laid out requirements for each of their programs, but when students were moving from one to the other, they faced much confusion and many unintended consequences.

“By having our students in on the conversation early we’ve been able to really sort of pinpoint the things that they really want and we need to remember to continue to have them in that conversation”
– Dr. Heather Belmont, Former Dean, School of Science at Miami Dade College

 

Meet TRANSFERmation: A quick video pitch on how two institutions will address low bachelor’s completion rates for STEM transfer students. What is TRANSFERmation?

Want to see other pilot concepts and the Seamless Transfer Pathways design process? View more videos here.