Hudson County Community College and New Jersey City University Sign Historic HCCC|NJCU CONNECT Transfer Agreement
December 13, 2023
The new agreement will enhance student success by facilitating a seamless transfer process from HCCC to NJCU with integrated supports and no credits lost.
December 13, 2023, Jersey City, NJ – The Presidents of Hudson County Community College (HCCC) and New Jersey City University (NJCU), Dr. Christopher Reber and Andrés Acebo, met to sign a historic agreement that will enable a seamless transfer experience from HCCC to NJCU as HCCC students take the next step in their academic journeys and pursue their bachelor’s degrees at NJCU.
The agreement facilitates the seamless transfer of credits from HCCC to NJCU, creating inclusive, visible, and barrier-free transfer pathways and ensuring that students do not accumulate excess credits at either institution. When students from a community college are accepted to a four-year college, they can face significant challenges and sometimes find that a portion of their credits will not be accepted, causing them to spend both time and money to retake similar courses at their new school. The HCCC|NJCU CONNECT program proactively eliminates this hurdle and provides transfer students with additional resources, including a transfer counselor who will work with them to ensure they have the support they need to be successful while transitioning from HCCC to NJCU.
The two Jersey City-based institutions of public higher education will also share additional resources, including but not limited to housing and childcare services at NJCU, and HCCC’s holistic support services and programs. The schools will also establish data and information-sharing procedures among their staff in order to share best practices and promote student success.
HCCC President Dr. Christopher Reber and NJCU President Andrés Acebo sign the HCCC|NJCU CONNECT Transfer Agreement, accompanied by students who will take part in the program.
Students will be dually-enrolled and have access to all programs and facilities at both institutions throughout their programs of study.
While the two colleges are geographically close, they have many programmatic commonalities, including a shared focus on student success. Reflecting on the impact of the agreement, HCCC President Dr. Christopher Reber stated, “We both serve large communities of traditionally underrepresented students. Many students at both institutions are the first in their families to go to college. Many of these students are navigating monumental barriers to pursue their education. When they succeed, it is life-changing for the students, their children, their families, and their communities, and the outcomes ripple throughout generations.”
NJCU President Andrés Acebo echoed this sentiment, stating “This historic announcement for both institutions builds upon NJCU’s nearly century-long commitment to providing a socioeconomically diverse population with access to an excellent education as a catalyst to social mobility. This is a pillar of our commitment to being one of the public anchor institutions in Hudson County and surrounding communities. NJCU recently announced the most significant overhaul of its general education program in decades. Our intentional work alongside our partners at Hudson County Community College will only further the distinction that NJCU is now the most transfer-friendly public university in the State of New Jersey. The partnership between NJCU and HCCC provides tools to change the trajectory for students who enroll in the community college, make the transition to the four-year institution, and engage fully in the opportunity to earn a bachelor's degree.”
President Acebo also spoke about the positive change that the event will bring to Hudson County residents, stating, “The work we are doing lives and breathes within our community. Help doesn’t always come from the outside – the most sustained focus of our work must be rooted within the communities that we serve. You can’t be for the community if you’re not in the community.”
There are now 15 academic pathways encompassing a variety of fields and disciplines available to HCCC students who want to begin a course of study here and continue on to NJCU after completing their associate degree. HCCC students in the following programs will be the first to benefit from these pathways – Accounting A.S. (to B.S. in Accounting at NJCU), Biology A.S. (to B.A. or B.S. in Biology), Business Administration A.S. (to B.S. in Management or B.S. in Marketing), Chemistry A.S. (to B.A. or B.S. in Chemistry), Computer Science (Cybersecurity) A.S. (to B.S. in Cybersecurity), Criminal Justice A.S. (to B.S. in Criminal Justice), English A.A. (to B.A. in Creative Writing or B.A. in Literature), Human Services, Pre-Social Work A.S. (to B.S. in Social Work), Mathematics A.S. (to B.S. in Mathematics), Nursing A.S. (to B.S. in Nursing), and Psychology A.A. (to B.A. in Psychology).
The largest number of HCCC students transfer to NJCU, so the agreement will have a resounding impact for many students.
While the leaders of the two institutions recently met to put pen to paper on the agreement, this didn’t happen overnight. This game-changing agreement is the result of several years of intensive work, and the program was initially developed during the Aspen Institute–American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) Transfer Student Success and Equity Intensive, an externally-funded national project designed to advance best practices for improved and more equitable student success. HCCC|NJCU CONNECT is modeled after the highly successful Northern Virginia Community College – George Mason University ADVANCE program.
On the level of collaboration required to turn HCCC|NJCU CONNECT from idea to reality, Dr. Reber stated, “When you set out to achieve something truly meaningful, when it’s real change that requires a lot of effort on the part of a lot of people, it takes a village. This is a significant, substantive change that will drive student success. All boats rise when we are rowing in the same direction.”