Alexandria, VA – Community colleges provide a strong foundation for the nation's graduating STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) workforce. In its latest Geoscience Currents, the American Geosciences Institute documents the flow of geoscience students from 2–year to 4-year institutions in Texas, adding to an earlier report on similar data from California released in 2012.
In 2012, 70 percent of geoscience students in Texas public universities had transferred from Community Colleges. In particular, Texas A&M University admitted students from 32 community colleges statewide, followed closely by Texas Tech which admitted students from 25 2-year institutions. However, the majority of 4-year institutions demonstrated direct transfer from five, or fewer, local community colleges.
These findings have implications both federally and at the state-level by helping identify which 2-year institutions may benefit from funding to promote research experiences for community college students and faculty. This can also help 4-year institutions forge stronger relationships with their feeder colleges to ensure smoother transitions for transferring intuitions.
For more information and to download a copy of this Geoscience Currents, go to:
http://www.agiweb.org/workforce/currents
The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geosciences education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.