The Senior Year Admission (SYA) Project Team and The Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ) co-delivered a poster presentation about Hong Kong transfer students at the 18th annual National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students (NISTS) conference from 5 to 7 February 2020 in Atlanta, GA in U.S.A. Scholars and faculties gathered to discuss ways to support transfer students and to improve their experience through education, research and policy advocacy.
Project Team members Dr. Kin Cheung, Project Leader of SYA Project, Mr. Man Ng, Project Coordinator and Dr. Lillian Zhang, Postdoctoral Fellow, Registrars from the Qualifications Framework and Qualifications Register of HKCAAVQ Ms. Anne Lau, Head and Registrar and Ms. Reace Wong, Assistant Registrar, co-presented a poster titled "Community Transfer Students in Asian Higher Education Context". The discussion reflected that SYA students had heavier study load, less social support, lower self-efficacy, poorer adjustment to campus life, lower satisfaction with the university, and more mental health concerns, than direct entrants. The importance of the collaborative work with different stakeholders to enhance curricular alignment and the concerted effort in establishing the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Centralized Database were highlighted to provide a better learning experience to transfer students was also highlighted.
The global connections established in the conference and the overseas experiences learned from various successful cases of community college transfer will bring a positive impact in building a transfer-friendly culture in Hong Kong.