College Completion Comebacks: Student Stories Videos
Published Jun 2024
COLLEGE COMPLETION COMEBACKS
A FILM SERIES ABOUT STUDENTS WHO RETURNED TO COLLEGE AFTER STOPPING OUT AND THE EVIDENCE-BASED INSTITUTIONAL PRACTICES THAT SUPPORTED THEIR JOURNEYS.
Over 40 million Americans have some college credit, but no awarded degree. This missed opportunity for individuals – and their families, communities, and potential employers – is a matter of equity for our country. Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and underrepresented Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander students are 30 percent more likely than White students to need to stop out before completing a degree.
The College Completion Comebacks film series follows the personal journeys of three returning students and lifts up evidence-based strategies institutions and policymakers can use to support more students to re-enroll and complete their degrees. Watch Korey, Joe, and Bonnie’s stories, read the Degree Reclamation Playbook, and learn more about a free online degree auditing tool below.
VIEWING GUIDE
WATCH
DEGREE RECLAMATION PLAYBOOK
The Degree Reclamation Playbook supports practitioners seeking to reengage this population, capture the momentum of existing credits, and bring students across the degree finish line.
Drawing on extensive experience and practical insights gleaned from institutions involved in Degrees When Due — IHEP’s national degree attainment initiative involving teams across 23 states at more than 200 colleges and universities dedicated to reconnecting with students with some college, no degree — this user-friendly guide includes a strategic assessment and an appendix full of carefully crafted worksheets and checklists. The Degree Reclamation Playbook focuses on two evidence-based and equity-focused strategies: adult reengagement and reverse transfer.
ADULT REENGAGEMENT
Adult reengagement includes retroactively awarding degrees to students who meet degree requirements and identifying ways to reengage and reenroll students who are near completion.
REVERSE TRANSFER
Reverse transfer, also referred to as “reverse credit transfer,” ensures that students are awarded the associate’s degrees they earn even after transferring from a two-year institution to a four-year institution by applying credits from the four-year institution back to the two-year institution.
DEGREE MINING TOOL
The Degree Mining Tool is a free online system to equip institutions to easily and affordably identify students who are eligible for credentials they have earned but have not yet been awarded. While a critical component of degree completion, the auditing process can be burdensome, even for the most well-resourced institutions. The tool equips institutions with actionable strategies to streamline their existing efforts and launch targeted campaigns to identify and award earned credentials. It even customizes the process to your specific student information system, ensuring a smooth and efficient way to improve practices.
ABOUT COLLEGE COMPLETION COMEBACKS
With generous support from Lumina Foundation, IHEP, in partnership with Longleaf Studios — based at Jacksonville State University — and lead documentarian Piper Hendricks, developed three micro-documentaries showcasing the stories of comebacker students.
Want to learn more about this series? Please contact IHEP at communications@ihep.org.