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The State Commission on Higher Education launched a Web site last week-- called the S.C. Transfer and Articulation Center -- to help students find out if a course at one school will transfer to another and how many credits a student will receive for it.
"The site is beneficial for students, parents, guidance counselors and even the general public," said Leigh Copeland, a spokeswoman for the Technical College of the Lowcountry. "It gives them the power to research."
All 33 of the state's public higher education institutions -- including four-year universities, two-year colleges and technical schools -- are participating, according to the SCTRAC Web site. The site publishes course offerings from each institution in a consistent format.
Joffery Blair, director of admissions for the University of South Carolina Beaufort, said the site is an important planning tool.
"Students can plan early on which courses they should take that would allow them to transfer to us," she said. "If a student is interested in a particular major and they know that from the very beginning, this would assure they could make a fluid transition."
In the past, students have had to ask at each school how particular courses will transfer and how many credits they would earn. There is no uniform, statewide transfer system.
For example, credits for an English 101 course taken at the Technical College of the Lowcountry will transfer to the University of South Carolina. However, the credits for the samecourse won't transfer to Clemson University.
The Web site will help students determine which schools will accept most of their credits and which ones would require them to repeat courses. The site also will provide other information related to transfers, such as application deadlines and contact information.
About 180,000 students attend the state's public colleges, according to the Higher Education Commission, and more than 15,000, or about 8 percent, are transfer students.
Blair said more than 200 students transferred to the University of South Carolina Beaufort last fall and the admissions office hopes that number will grow in future years.
"We've really been trying to increase our recruitment activity for transfer students, so this Web site will help," she said.
More than 230 of the about 2,500 students at the Technical College of the Lowcountry are enrolled in the school's programs designed to prepare students to transfer to a four-year university, Copeland said. About 300 students with some college credits transferred into TCL last fall, she said.
Diane Knich of the Charleston Post and Courier contributed to this story.
