The transition between community college and a four-year university is easier for engineering students thanks to increasing cohesion between the university and Kaskaskia College.

Kaskaskia College in Centralia and SIU’s college of engineering signed an agreement last week that assists students who have an associate degree in pre-engineering with transferring their credits to the engineering college.

The agreement is part of a dual-admission program between Transfer Student Services and Kaskaskia College.

Amanda Sutton, the assistant director for Transfer Relations Services at SIU. The dual admission program was created to assist students who knew they were going to attend a community college before finishing at a four-year university.

“For students who plan to attend a community college first, we help them pick classes that will allow them to transition faster,” she said. “We also allow students to take classes online so they can access courses that they would need to take here, such as the UCOL 101 class.”

Sutton said agreements like the one between Kaskaskia and SIU are very common throughout the Midwest.

“In Illinois, we have active recruiters in nearly every community college, as well as the border states such as Wisconsin and Missouri,” she said.

Students who transfer to SIU have the option to participate in the dual-admission program, with one of the major benefits being the locked-in tuition rates, Sutton said.

“The mission of the dual-admission program is to not only eliminate extra years for students, but also saves them extra money that is usually accumulated going through a traditional university,” she said.

Chris Pearson, the coordinator of recruitment for the college of engineering, said the new agreement means a great deal of change is coming to the School of Engineering.

“The agreement is a direct articulation agreement between us and Kaskaskia,” Pearson said. “The students in Kaskaskia’s associate engineer of science program allows students to complete their degree in whatever they’re engineering desires may be.”

Though this agreement is fairly new and there has not been a chance to get feedback from students, Pearson anticipates a positive impact.

“I think it will help greatly, considering that we have such a healthy relationship already with Kasaskia,” he said. “Transfer students make up 20 to 40 percent of our combined undergrad and graduate student body. I think we will get a considerable amount of those students in Carbondale.”

Both Sutton and Pearson agreed the largest benefit of this arrangement is providing students a roadmap for what they need to do to get through college without taking extra time or spending extra money.

“I truly believe that the biggest (benefit) is for the student in this type of direct-articulation agreement because all the classes they are taking automatically transfer to a degree,” he said. “Students get dollar value for their time and money spent.”

Pearson said getting an associate degree prior to a bachelor’s makes an individual more marketable in the workplace, especially in the engineering field.

“An associate’s shows that a student took advantage of the best utilization for their time and money,” Pearson said.

For more information on the dual admission program, or transfer student services visit admissions.siu.edu/dap.

Kia Smith can be reached at [email protected] on Twitter @KiaSmith__ or 536-3311