Legislation Will Help Missouri Students Transfer College Credit

(Columbia, MO) -- On Thursday, Gov. Jay Nixon signed House Bill 1042, which he says will increase the number of Missouri adults with post-secondary degrees to 60 percent by the year 2020. That percentage currently sits at 35.

Gov. Nixon signed copies of the legislation during a ceremony at a higher education forum in Columbia that was attended by higher education and university officials from across the state.

It was sponsored by Rep. Mike Thomson of Maryville and handled in the Senate by Sen. David Pearce, of Warrensburg.

"I think that it nudges higher education across the two and four year institutions to collaborate more and start to look at the classes that they offer and get together with those and decide what actually should be offered within these things," says Rep. Thomson.

"House Bill 1042 will remove many of the obstacles that block the route to degree attainment for hundreds of thousands of Missourians," Gov. Nixon said in a statement. "It will improve remediation, align curriculum from high school to college, improve course transfer across higher education institutions, and help additional students who have received enough credits for an associate's degree get that credential."

Among House Bill 1042's provisions to help with degree attainment, the bill authorizes the Coordinating Board of Higher Education to:

-Require all two- and four-year public institutions to create a core of at least 25 undergraduate courses by July 1, 2014, that are transferable among all public institutions
-Develop a reverse transfer policy among two- and four-year public institutions that will enable students who have accumulated sufficient credit (in combination from those institutions) to earn an associate degree from a two-year college.

Gov. Nixon says the legislation could help some 750,000 Missourians with some college credits continue in school, complete their coursework, and earn their degrees.

Read more about House Bill 1042