The research and this report explore the practices and potential opportunities for improving transfer and mobility by enhancing digitization and exchange of students’ official academic credentials, transcripts, and documents. It summarizes the findings from a comprehensive study of data exchange practices and perspectives at post-secondary institutions and their partners in Ontario conducted in the summer, fall, and winter of 2018/19.
The impetus for this research stems in part from broader efforts to create a national student data exchange network. Called the ARUCC Groningen Project,1 the goal of that larger initiative includes enabling students to move seamlessly into and between Canadian post-secondary institutions and into the workforce by improving official credential, transcript, and academic document exchange. These aspirations directly align with the Ontario Council on Articulation and Transfer’s (ONCAT) stated intention of understanding and removing systemic barriers that impede seamless transfer.