NISTS | University of North Georgia
NATIONAL TRANSFER
STUDENT WEEK
OCTOBER 20-24, 2025
National Transfer Student Week celebrates transfer students and the professionals who support them on their educational journeys.
As transfer champions, it's vitally important that we build awareness of common transfer barriers and the diverse student needs and identities within our transfer populations. National Transfer Student Week offers the perfect opportunity to recognize transfer student contributions and strengthen campus-wide commitment to transfer success.
Join us for this annual event, every third (full) week of October, to challenge assumptions, build empathy, and instill transfer pride on your campus.
#TransferStudentWeek
WHY TRANSFER WEEK MATTERS
Transfer students bring diverse life experiences, academic backgrounds, and personal strengths that enrich campus communities. They also navigate unique challenges as they move between institutions and work toward their educational goals. Transfer success extends far beyond specialized services—it happens when entire campus communities create environments where transfer students feel seen, supported, and celebrated.
For Transfer Students
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National Transfer Student Week creates visibility and recognition, helping students build community, develop pride in their educational journey, and connect with resources and opportunities.
For Campus Communities
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The week builds empathy and understanding about transfer experiences, leading to more supportive institutional practices and stronger transfer advocacy year-round.
Everyone Has a Role
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From staff who take time to understand transfer goals to faculty members who acknowledge students' previous academic experiences, every campus community member has opportunities to validate transfer journeys and contribute to transfer student success.
MARKETING KIT
If you'll do the planning, we'll provide the artwork to help you advertise!
We've created customizable templates and graphics to help bring your ideas to life. Evergreen marketing materials mean they'll work every year, with any approach you choose for your campus.
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*Includes flyers, posters, social media, sticker, and t-shirt designs that you can adapt to match your institution's color scheme and branding guidelines.
National Transfer Student Week provides a flexible framework that adapts to your campus culture, available resources, and student population. Whether you have extensive resources for comprehensive programming or just a few minutes to share a social media post, every effort to recognize transfer students makes a meaningful difference.
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Your celebration can be as simple as highlighting transfer success stories or as comprehensive as hosting week-long events across multiple departments. The key is choosing activities that feel authentic to your institution while addressing the real needs of your transfer students.
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SUPPORTING ALL
TRANSFER PATHWAYS
Modern transfer journeys follow individualized pathways that serve students' specific circumstances. Students may start at community colleges before transferring to a university, begin at universities then transfer elsewhere for better program fit, or move between multiple institutions types in pursuit of their educational goals. This means that institutions of all types play important roles in supporting transfer success—whether serving as starting points, destinations, or waypoints in students' pathways.
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National Transfer Student Week celebrations can honor multiple aspects of transfer support simultaneously. Your institution might recognize current students building toward transfer goals, celebrate alumni who have successfully transitioned to other institutions, welcome new transfer students adapting to your campus, and acknowledge the faculty and staff who facilitate these various transitions.
LEVERAGING THE POWER OF TRANSFER STORIES
Although transfer-focused research has increased over the years, scholarship alone cannot provide a full picture of the transfer student experience. ​The transfer stories below reflect a small fraction of the first-hand accounts we’ve heard through the years and may be similar to your students’ experiences.
What type of stories do you tend to hear? How might you share them to build empathy for students' journeys? Which insights could inform new and existing transfer initiatives at your institution?
READY TO START PLANNING?
Your celebration, whether a simple social media campaign or comprehensive programming, contributes to a national movement that amplifies the transfer student experience and builds stronger support systems for transfer students everywhere.
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Discover comprehensive celebration strategies, implementation timelines, and creative ideas for programming, education, and community building.