History & background

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, students who attended Alabama's public two-year colleges faced many obstacles when it came to transferring coursework from their two-year colleges to public four-year institutions in our state. Often decisions regarding transfer credit were left entirely up to the receiving institutions.

Many of the institutions would not accept certain courses, forcing transfer students to re-take similar courses after matriculation to the four-year institutions. This created much confusion, misunderstanding, and mistrust between students, parents and representatives at the receiving four-year institutions.

As a result of great losses in credits, time, and money, students and their parents begin to complain to their state representatives.

In March of 1994, a group of representatives drafted legislation, that if approved would force the two-year and four-year institutions to work together to resolve transfer issues. As a result, Legislative Act 94-202 was passed and the AGSC & STARS program was created. The Articulation and General Studies Committee (AGSC) was established and the Statewide Transfer and Articulation Reporting System (STARS) was implemented throughout the state.

In 2022, the AGSC & STARS program was re-branded as Alabama Transfers powered by AGSC &STARS. To facilitate this re-branding initiative, the program also launched a new website with new and enhanced end-user features.