New deal smooths out transition for business students going from Kirkwood to University of Iowa

As part of ongoing efforts to strengthen partnerships with area community colleges and their students, the University of Iowa's Tippie College of Business this week signed a new agreement making it easier for Kirkwood Community College business students to earn a four-year degree.

The articulation agreement provides Kirkwood students who have earned an associate of applied science degree in business administration a more seamless path to completing a bachelor's degree in business with the UI college.

It will allow them to take a two-year degree from Kirkwood and combine it with another two years at UI to complete the bachelor's program in four years — like traditional students who spend all four years in the Tippie College.

The agreement ensures a 'smoother transition by allowing a few more of their general education courses to count,' according to Kenneth Brown, associate dean of the UI college's undergraduate program.

Brown said he's also been in touch with the dean of the Des Moines Area Community College business school.

'I hope we can partner with them as well,' he said.

The agreements come at a time when the university is trying to grow enrollment by 500 students a year for the next four years and specifically looking to add more students who are Iowa residents.

The planned growth is the result of several factors, including purposeful enrollment restriction after the 2008 flood. UI administrators for years felt the campus was unable to accommodate more students but now believe it's ready to expand. The university also wants to add more residents to its student body in response to a new funding proposal for Iowa's public universities that ties a majority of state support to resident enrollment.

Many Kirkwood students identify as Iowa residents.

But, according to the new articulation agreement, any Kirkwood graduates interested in the Tippie College opportunity still must meet minimum admission and general education requirements, including achieving a grade-point average of at least 2.75 and completing prerequisite courses.

UI has articulation agreements with all Iowa community colleges — and the Tippie College specifically participates in several — but this will be its first with an associate of applied science degree program, according to Brown.

'We are delighted to partner with Kirkwood to help their students transition directly into Tippie,' Brown said.

Articulation agreements typically are 'written or verbal agreements between two institutions regarding the acceptance of transfer credit from one school and how it will be used to meet degree requirements at another school,' according to a report from Iowa's Liaison Advisory Committee on Transfer Students.

The agreements can range from acceptance of a full two-year degree in meeting some or all of the general education requirements at a four-year institution to program-to-program articulation where specific courses are applied toward a bachelor's degree in a similar or related program.

Anually, more than 4,500 students transfer from Iowa's community colleges to degree programs at Iowa's regent universities. Kirkwod has 96 separate articulation agreements with 31 institutions, including all three public universities in Iowa and most of the state's private four-year and two-year institutions. It also has six agreements with programs at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, for example.

The new agreement with the UI business college eliminates the guesswork for students aspiring to transfer, said Kirkwood spokesman Justin Hoehn.

'It sets in stone the pathway to make sure they fulfill their requirements,' he said.