Wayne State, Macomb Community College forge broad credit transfer deal

Wayne State University and Macomb Community College on Wednesday announced a guaranteed transfer admission agreement spanning 20 academic areas.

Leslie Kellogg, provost and vice president, Learning Unit, Macomb Community College (left), and Wayne State University Provost Laurie Lauzon Clabo sign the transfer pathways agreement on Wednesday.

The pact, the fifth career pathway agreement for Wayne State with a local community college, is the most expansive yet, said Ahmad Ezzeddine, vice president of academic student affairs and global engagement at WSU.

The program will help families avoid credit loss, reducing the costs to transfer from MCC to Wayne State, he said, while also supporting the state’s “Sixty by 30” goal of increasing the number of people in the state with a college degree or professional credential to 60% by 2030.

Under the guaranteed transfer agreement, MCC students will be able to transfer more than 60 credits in career pathway areas ranging from accounting and finance, technology and analytics to electrical and mechanical engineering, applied health sciences, social work, exercise and sport science and communications.

Each pathway provides students with a roadmap for the courses to take to secure guaranteed admission and guaranteed transfer credit to Wayne State once they earn their associate degree at MCC.

The Transfer Pathways initiative moves us away from the traditional course-to-course and program-to-program articulation models," Ezzeddine said in an emailed statement. "It is designed to expand options for students and adult learners and allow them to transfer from various programs and career clusters, including vocational degrees and certificates, rather than just a few articulated programs.”

WSU and MCC have worked together to help students earn their degrees since 1991 when the Warren-based community college opened its University Center.

“It’s great to be taking another important step with our long-standing partner Wayne State University in further streamlining the route from associate degree at Macomb Community College to bachelor degree completion at Wayne,” Macomb Community College President James Sawyer said in a news release. “Earning a bachelor’s degree is a pathway to opportunity and prosperity for our students, their families and our community.”

Wayne State's guaranteed transfer agreement with MCC builds on earlier agreements with Henry Ford College, Oakland Community College, Schoolcraft College and Wayne County Community College District finalized over the past 12-18 months.