Many students start community college with the hope of getting an associate degree and then transferring to a four-year institution.

The state's higher education systems are designed so that students can spend two years at community college, two years at a university, and then graduate with a bachelor's degree.

However, the vast majority of these students never accomplish their goal, a state audit found.

Transfer rates are even lower for students in less affluent parts of the state and in rural areas, and for students who are Black or Hispanic, according to the audit.

The transfer system is too complex, the audit sa.. and numerous studies have found that bureaucracy is partially to blame.

Some Cal State and UC majors don't accept certain community college courses, and some community colleges don't offer the classes that students need.

Even students who meet the requirements get rejected, the audit found.

In 2010, California lawmakers reformed the transfer process by creating a new kind of community college degree known as the associate degree for transfer, which guarantees admission to a Cal State campus.

The state has also pushed the community college system to standardize how it labels courses to make it easier for students to determine what they need to transfer.

Implementing the new system has been slow, however, and it won't be complete until 2027.

In 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom set a goal to increase the percentage of working-age adults with a post-secondary degree or certificate from 55% to 70% by 2030, and improving the community college transfer system is an important part of reaching that goal.

Auditors recommended that community college campuses find ways to increase the number of counselors who can support transfer-bound students and that all three segments of higher education work to improve successful programs, such as the associate degree for transfer.

With CalMatters, I'm Adam Echelman.