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South Carolina technical colleges are flourishing in the post-pandemic years as increasing numbers of students are attending the schools, including many who plan to transfer to four-year universities.

While total enrollment in United States’ colleges has declined about 8.5 percent since 2010, according to CollegeTransitions.com, South Carolina’s technical colleges have experienced a steady rise in enrollment.

This year, enrollment at the state’s technical colleges increased 6 percent and has increased each of the last three years, said Tim Hardee, president of South Carolina Technical College System.

“We serve 130,000 students with all the technical colleges across the state,” he said. “That’s a significant part of higher education.”

Several factors, including a state program – SC WINS - that lowers tuition costs for some students, have contributed to that rise in enrollment. 

One of the reasons why more students are attending technical colleges is that these colleges are seen as a cost-effective way to begin one’s academic journey. They have actively sought transfer agreements with four-year colleges and universities, including full block agreements where the four-year institution accepts all of the technical school’s general education classes as a block.

These agreements mean students can transfer from the technical college to the university and receive their bachelor’s degree within two or three years.

An example is the full block agreement signed in 2024 by Horry-Georgetown Technical College (HGTC) in Conway and Converse University in Spartanburg.

“We always strive to create new transfer agreements with senior universities, and Converse seemed like a great fit for us,” said Theresa Strong, HGTC assistant vice president and dean, School of Business, Computer Technology, and Personal Services.

“We ended up going with a full block agreement – the first of its kind for our college,” she said. “Converse accepts all of our general education classes as a block, instead of one-by-one as most agreements do.”

Any HGTC classes taken by students will transfer to Converse as long as they earned a C grade or better. After students transfer to Converse, their GPA starts over at the university.

“This is an ideal (plan) for a student who is maybe not sure about jumping into a four-year institution or senior university,” Strong explained. “We offer stepping stones for students so they can start at their own level and go at their own pace, and it makes them stronger and more confident along the way.”

In 2023, the South Carolina Technical College System signed an agreement with Clemson University, the University of South Carolina, and other four-year, public institutions across the state to have them agree to transfer the first 30 hours of credits completed at one of the state’s 16 technical colleges.

The idea is that the first 30 hours of general education courses – math, history, science, English – taken at a technical college would transfer to the four-year institution. This makes it possible for students to graduate from the university within three years instead of four years.

“In years past, students would lose hours in that transfer process,” Hardee said. “The South Carolina legislature encouraged us to work together and come up with an agreement that was ultimately beneficial to the citizens of the state.”

Strong cites her personal passion for transfer agreements for leading her to an articulation agreement with Converse, as well as additional transfer agreements with Coastal Carolina University, Francis Marion University, and The Citadel. Those are not block agreements but students can get many of their classes accepted when they transfer to those three institutions.

“We have a four-year institution – Coastal Carolina University – across the street from us, so a lot of students take advantage of going to a two-year tech college and getting their gen-ed courses out of the way before moving on to a four-year college,” Strong said. “We’re lucky that most of our students stay local after they graduate and either go into the workforce, which is wonderful and helps our local economy, or they go to the Upstate to [Lander or] Converse University, where we have a full transfer agreement.”

HGTC’s enrollment has been on the rise with its greatest spring semester increase – 11.1 percent in the spring of 2024. With more than 7,700 students, the college is “bursting at the seams,” Strong said.

Cost is a major reason why some students seeking higher education are choosing to enroll in their local technical college, Hardee said.

“There is a $25,000 cost savings for a student who opts to go to a technical college and then go to a four-year institution,” he said.

“The average (higher education) graduate has $38,000 in student debt in South Carolina,” Hardee explained. “Anything we can do to make college more cost effective for students is a positive.”

A WalletHub.com story from July 31, 2024, showed South Carolina to be fifth on the list of states with the most student debt. According to U .S. Department of Education data, the average debt of the nation’s 42.8 million borrowers is $38,000.

“Students and parents are becoming more aware of the cost of higher education and are looking for ways to make it more affordable,” Hardee said.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, students often could find free or reduced tuition at technical colleges due to $601 million in funding from the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan. The funding included $178 million for community colleges, including $27.4 million to Midlands Technical College, $25.2 million to Greenville Technical College, $18.4 million to Horry-Georgetown Technical College, and $13.6 million to Piedmont Technical College.

The South Carolina WINS Scholarship Program (SC-WINS) also provides tuition funds to technical college students, providing up to $5,000 per academic year to those who meet criteria. It was designed to reduce workforce shortages in specific fields.

Technical colleges also have made agreements with four-year institutions that would serve the same purpose of bolstering certain career fields.

For example, Florence-Darlington Technical College (FDTC) in Florence has an agreement with Francis Marion University in Florence. All associates of science in marketing and management credits from the technical college are accepted at the university, says Andrew Golden, director of marketing and strategic communications at Florence-Darlington.

“They can go into Francis Marion University as a junior and continue the path towards a bachelor’s degree,” Golden said. “It’s very easy for people to do that, and typically community colleges like ours are cheaper for tuition.”

FDTC’s goal is student success and workplace development. The college wants students to make a good wage when they graduate and enter the workforce. These transfer agreements help the technical college meet its overarching goal, he said.

“It’s not just a piece of paper; we want them to have access to jobs that can support a family,” Golden said. “The jobs that can be provided when you leave a technical college can be in the $80,000 range with a two-year degree.”

FDTC has articulation agreements with other private institutions, including Lander University. Under the agreement, Lander accepts FDTC’s courses when students transfer to the university to pursue a bachelor’s degree, he said.

These agreements have helped FDTC, which has about 3,500 students, increase its enrollment almost every semester for the past three years, Golden said.

“I think you have a lot of parents that went to a four-year college and came out with a lot of debt,” he explained. “They may be encouraging their students to consider different pathways.”

FDTC also has dual enrollment for high school students, which allows them to take high school classes while still in high school so they can get some courses transferred to their eventual college or university.

Greenville Technical College (GTC) has had an agreement with the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg for about 20 years, said René Sawyer, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at GTC in Greenville.

“This agreement allows students to have access to USC Upstate while they are students at Greenville Tech,” she said. “It gives them access to the university’s library, priority registration and advising, and that partnership continues to grow.”

The GTC-USC Upstate agreement includes a reverse transfer partnership. This means that a student who is pursuing an associate’s degree that requires courses that they cannot take at Greenville Tech can take those courses at USC Upstate and then have the credits transfer to GTC, where the student will receive the associate’s degree, Sawyer explained.

The agreement also allows students at GTC to transfer their credits to USC Upstate and use those credits in their pursuit of a bachelor’s degree.

“Lander University has partnered with us on reverse transfer, and some other state schools are looking into it as well,” Sawyer said.

“The process of having an agreement helps students have a path,” she said. “We have a transfer headquarters at Greenville Tech, and students can come and talk to reps from four-year schools.”

Transfer agreements continue to grow and are popular among students, Sawyer said.

“We hear from our students, after they transferred, that they appreciate starting here at Greenville Tech because of small class size and connection with faculty,” she said. “We have wonderful faculty, and Greenville Tech who work with them to be successful. But the rigor – they say – is as high or higher than at the four year institution.”

Anything South Carolina technical schools can do to encourage people to earn degrees is good for the state’s economy, Hardee said.

“The transfer agreement has been a positive move for us as a state – without question,” he said.