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Transfer Success Project

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Transfer Success Project

The Office of Higher Education’s Transfer Success Project drives student-centered outcomes through evidence-based decisions and cross-sector collaboration.

Directed by the Michigan Legislature, the Office of Higher Education (OHE) is working with colleges and universities statewide to facilitate student transfer and credit acceptance.

This initiative is part of Michigan’s broader Sixty by 30 goal, which aims to ensure 60% of working-age adults hold a postsecondary degree or certificate by 2030.

Request for Proposals (RFP)

OHE is soliciting proposals for grants of up to $75,000 to advance new studies that will promote deeper understanding of the Michigan transfer landscape and contribute to statewide transfer success improvements.

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Michigan Transfer Success Research RFP Info Session recording

Watch the Informational Session Recording

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Project Initiatives

  • ACTS Council Members sitting at a large table

    Advisory Council on Transfer Success (ACTS)

    A 16-member council of representatives from Michigan's public and private colleges and universities guiding OHE's student-centered transfer strategy.

  • Council meeting

    Developing New Statewide MiTransfer Pathways

    As part of the Transfer Success Project, OHE will convene faculty statewide in 2026 to develop new MiTransfer Pathways.

  • Man writing on a document at a table

    Michigan Transfer Landscape Briefs

    This brief series shares key research findings on student transfer trends and practices across Michigan.

Vision and Principles

As one of its first deliverables, the Advisory Council on Transfer Success (ACTS) collaborated in early fall 2025 to develop a vision and guiding principles to anchor the Office of Higher Education’s transfer success project.

Vision: Michigan will build and maintain a cohesive and student-centered transfer landscape in which student progress towards educational and career goals is supported by efficient, consistent, and transparent transfer processes that optimize educational momentum across colleges and universities.

Principle 1: Keep Students at the Center & Value Their Prior Investments

Michigan’s transfer success improvement efforts must center around students, value their prior educational investments, and empower them to efficiently complete their transfer pathway.  

Principle 2: Reduce Barriers & Optimize Credit Transferability

This  project will coordinate actionable opportunities for Michigan colleges and universities to reduce administrative barriers for transfer students and optimize credit transferability and applicability to fulfill degree requirements.

Principle 3: Leverage Technology to Enhance Transparency & Improve Consistency

These efforts will leverage technology, including www.mitransfer.org, to enhance transparency and improve consistency in transfer processes leading to a more predictable and fair experience for all of Michigan’s transfer students.

Principle 4: Embrace a Data-Informed Culture

This work will embrace a data-informed strategy that prioritizes evidence-based decision-making. Additionally, the project will create opportunities to bolster our transfer data and evaluation infrastructure toward a culture for continuous improvement evaluation of transfer success efforts.

Principle 5: Build Toward Enduring Statewide Success

This currently time-limited project will facilitate network and infrastructure building toward enduring success of coordinated statewide transfer initiatives.

Michigan Transfer Network logo

Michigan Transfer Planning Website

The Michigan legislature previously invested in other transfer success improvement work, including funding the State’s collaboratively developed transfer planning website at www.mitransfer.org. This website features a public database of transferable courses and options to earn credit for industry credentials at Michigan colleges and universities as well as other information helpful for transfer pathway planning. A robust secure user area helps facilitate transfer articulation workflows among participating Michigan colleges and universities.

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