U.S. Department of Education The purpose of this report is to examine how often, and under what conditions, postsecondary institutions accept the transfer of credits earned by students at other institutions.. This report findings utilize transcript data from the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study of 2009, a component of the 2004-2009 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, and followed a nationally representative sample of approximately 17,000 students who entered postsecondary education for the first time in the 2003–04 academic year for a period of 6 years.