Defiance College, Ivy Tech Community College sign transfer agreement

Continuing to meet the educational needs of northwest Ohio residents, officials from Defiance College and Ivy Tech Community College, Northeast signed an agreement today that provides a framework for the transfer of credits for students from the Indiana community college to the four-year institution.

Credits from Ivy Tech Community College’s associate of applied science and associate of science programs will now transfer seamlessly into baccalaureate degree programs at Defiance College. Administration and faculty of both institutions have worked together to develop course equivalencies and course requirements for completion of a bachelor’s degree in several areas of study. The agreement is in effect for courses taken beginning this fall.

Dr. Gerald Wood, Defiance College president, noted, “Defiance College is pleased to sign an articulation agreement with Ivy Tech Community College of Northeast Indiana. This interstate agreement provides excellent opportunities for both our institutions to serve students in Indiana and Ohio.”

"As the community college for Indiana, we are developing numerous articulation agreements with four-year institutions. However, this partnership with Defiance College is distinctive because it extends our reach beyond our state boundaries,” said Dr. Russell Baker, dean of academic affairs at Ivy Tech Community College, Northeast campus. “In particular, this agreement will provide our significant population of Ohio students with a defined path for taking the first two years of study here, and then returning to Ohio to complete the bachelor's degree at Defiance."

Baker noted that this articulation agreement is distinctive in that it is only the third such partnership his institution has forged with an Ohio college.

He said that 190 Ohio students were enrolled at Ivy Tech Community College, Northeast in the 2006-07 academic year.

Ivy Tech Community College graduates will now be able to pursue a bachelor’s degree at Defiance in the following areas: accounting, business administration, business administration with marketing emphasis, criminal justice, English, social work, and psychology. More areas of study are expected to be added.

Sally Bissell, assistant academic dean for adult and graduate programs at Defiance College, said administrators from the two institutions had been in discussions for several months to develop the partnership, and she expected the curricula would be attractive to students of both traditional and non-traditional age.

Ivy Tech Community College is Indiana’s second largest public post-secondary institution with more than 105,000 students enrolled annually. Ivy Tech Community College has 23 campuses throughout Indiana. It serves as the state’s engine of workforce development, offering affordable degree programs and training that are aligned with the needs of its community along with courses and programs that transfer to other colleges and universities in Indiana. It is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Defiance College is an independent, liberal arts institution offering 41 undergraduate majors as well as graduate programs in education and business. Defiance College has received national recognition for its educational experience of engagement. U. S. News & World Report ranks Defiance in the top tier of comprehensive colleges in the Midwest as well as one of the top 25 schools in the nation for its service learning programs. The Princeton Review features Defiance College in Colleges with a Conscience: 81 Great Schools with Outstanding Community Involvement. The College was named with distinction to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll