What if, after completing an associate degree in marine sciences, a student could easily transfer to an institution in Australia to continue with a bachelor’s program studying the Great Barrier Reef?
For decades, such a transfer has not been possible. A lack of infrastructure for transferring to an institution overseas has long meant that students eager to complete a degree outside of the U.S. would have to start as a first-year student.
But a new venture, the Transfer Abroad Network, aims to change that by working with international universities to create pathways for U.S. students—especially community college graduates—to transfer abroad. The goal is both to help community college students access exciting global education experiences and to give institutions across the world access to an untapped market of American students.
TAN co-founders Ashley Warmington and Emma Schwartz Lara are both Americans with extensive backgrounds in international education; Warmington went to college in Scotland and later worked for Scottish universities, including as a recruiter in North America, while Schwartz Lara did similar work for institutions in the U.K. and Australia.
In her work, Warmington said she heard frequently from students who had already started college that they wanted to study in Scotland. But there was no infrastructure for accepting transfers at the universities.
“The answer was always a disheartening ‘It can’t be done. There’s not really a pathway. It can be complicated,’” she said.
Warmington (left) and Schwartz Lara both worked internationally before launching TAN.
The reasons it’s difficult to transfer abroad are multifold; for one, outside of the U.S., transferring between institutions of higher learning isn’t a common practice, TAN’s founders said. In addition, degree structures differ from country to country. Many international institutions don’t require general education courses and instead focus exclusively on major requirements from the beginning; as a result, they might expect a student transferring to their institutions to have different courses on their transcript than a U.S. student typically would have taken in their first two years of college.
That’s where TAN, which officially launched in November, comes in. The company’s platform allows international institutions to outline which of their majors accept transfer students, what associate degree is required to get into each program and any other requirements—such as minimum GPA or specific courses—that students need to qualify for the program.
“That level of transparency that hasn’t been there is now there. What do you need in order to finish your last two years with us? It’s almost like reverse mapping, where you’re telling the student exactly what they need rather than this … back-and-forth, back-and-forth, back-and-forth,” said Schwartz Lara. “It’s, ‘this is what’s going to set you up the best for success.’”
Interested students can make free profiles, peruse degree programs and apply directly through the TAN platform—a feature Warmington and Schwartz Lara said was important because some of the international universities don’t have the infrastructure for transfers to apply in their own application portals. The platform also includes information about cost and financial aid to help students make informed choices about where to study.
The first community college to sign on to the network was Orange Coast College in Southern California, where Schwartz Lara and Warmington had conducted a pilot of sorts. Before TAN launched, the pair worked to help about 10 students studying marine science at OCC transfer to James Cook University in Australia, where Schwartz Lara previously worked and which is located near the Great Barrier Reef. Since then, OCC has expanded its partnerships with other institutions, such as developing a pathway for culinary arts students to study cooking in Switzerland for two years.
“It’s part of our mission, really, always looking to create these opportunities for students to get education opportunities globally as well as locally,” said Angelica L. Suarez, OCC’s president.
Where the Grass Is Greener
The launch of the platform comes at a time when some Americans are taking a particularly strong interest in studying outside the U.S. amid political turmoil and the rising cost of living. Last year, a record number of American students applied to study in the U.K., and Inside Higher Ed reported on prospective graduate students looking to study abroad because of their opposition to President Donald Trump.
So far, 13 international universities offering over 400 majors have joined the platform, and the numbers are growing. One institution, Queen’s University Belfast, a public research-intensive institution in Northern Ireland, has even launched a scholarship specifically for students who transfer to the institution through TAN.
Susan McCleary, senior international officer for QUB, said the partnership with TAN was a natural fit because her institution already has a global focus, welcoming a significant number of international students every year.
QUB offers a strong value proposition to North American students, she said. Not only do they gain intercultural skills and an international degree, which some employers find especially attractive, but the degree programs are only three years, allowing students to save a year of tuition money and enter the workforce sooner. (Belfast, she also noted, has a very low cost of living.)
“We’ve only just launched this in the last month so this is all very new to us; we’re still learning a lot. It’ll be interesting to see what applications come through. But we’re very hopeful, particularly with certain programs in the arts and business,” she said. “It’s a big step for students to perhaps think about leaving the U.S. and coming across to Belfast, so if they’re making that investment and that commitment, we really want to ensure that we’re the right institution for them.”
Anna Esaki-Smith, an international education expert and the founder of the consulting firm Education Rethink, said that she sees TAN as a strategic way for international institutions to expand their reach in the U.S.
But it could be challenging to get students on board, she said; U.S. students likely won’t recognize the names of the international institutions offered on TAN’s platform, and that lack of brand recognition could make it difficult to get students excited about their options. On top of that, it might be tough to convince students that finishing their bachelor’s degree abroad is a better move than continuing at their local university system, which they may see as cheaper and more convenient, she said—even though tuition at international colleges is often lower than at a U.S. institution.
“I think because the student population at community colleges is not really in the discussion of international ed, I’m not sure how many are aware or might be intimidated at the thought of, after their associate degree, that they’re going to spend a year going abroad,” she said. “I think the value of it has to be messaged very strongly.”
