Assembly Bills 928 and 1111 went into effect this fall to streamline the community college student transfer process, according to the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges website.
AB 928, or the Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act of 2021, created the California General Education Transfer Curriculum. Cal-GETC aims to “establish a singular lower-division general education pathway that meets the academic requirements necessary for transfer admission,” according to the bill.
“The idea here is to try to make it clearer to students what they have to do and how to do it,” said Curriculum Committee Chair Karl Zoller. “Rather than thinking about all these different GE patterns, the idea is just to have one.”
Transfer Center Coordinator Megan Neves said students starting in fall 2025 will be required to follow the Cal-GETC pattern. Those who began their education prior to the semester have the choice to follow the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum, California State University General Education Breadth or Cal-GETC patterns.
Neves said major differences in Cal-GETC include the addition of an oral communication requirement, the removal of a language requirement and a decrease in the total number of units required.
AB 1111 aims to “ensure that comparable courses across all community colleges have the same course number,” according to the bill.
Neves, a member of the Curriculum Committee, said the process of creating a common course numbering system for all 116 California community colleges is complex.
“Think about all the classes we have, and then imagine that process stretched out 116 times,” Neves said. “It’s probably going to take years for us to do this. They’re rolling it out.”
California community colleges are in the third phase of CCN implementation, which includes finalizing templates for 47 courses, according to the ASCCC website. Zoller said these templates are created by the ASCCC to outline course name, number, description, units and prerequisites.
Neves and Transfer Specialist Emily Barkley acknowledged the difficulty students may have navigating these changes. They advised students to visit counselors, the Transfer Center and designated student support programs on campus for assistance.
“Know that your confusion is not on an island by itself, and know that we want to help you, because we understand how confusing it is,” Neves said.
Articulation Officer William Madden said he understands the concerns of students and faculty. As an articulation officer, part of his job is to ensure community college courses transfer to four-year schools. Madden said he and others are “on the front line” of implementing these assembly bills to ensure student success and curriculum uniformity.
“We have a ways to go, and this is why partnerships and collaboration are critical,” Madden said. “Guidance from the State of California is critical as far as the best practices to help facilitate this.”