Power to the Transfer: Critical Race Theory and a Transfer Receptive Culture

Currently, U.S. community colleges serve nearly half of all students of color in higher education who, for a multitude of reasons, do not continue their education by transferring to a university. For those students who do transfer, often the responsibility for the application process, retention, graduation, and overall success is placed on them rather than their respective institutions.

This book provides direction toward the development and maintenance of a transfer receptive culture, which is defined as an institutional commitment by a university to support transfer students of colour. A transfer receptive culture explicitly acknowledges the roles of race and racism in the vertical transfer process from a community college to a university and unapologetically centres transfer as a form of equity in the higher education pipeline.

The framework is guided by critical race theory in education, which acknowledges the role of white supremacy and its contemporary and historical role in shaping institutions of higher learning.