A wave of new agreements to let Indiana students transfer credits from community colleges to four-year universities should make getting a degree easier and cheaper for thousands of Hoosiers.

The move, which comes at the push of state legislators, clears a major flaw that had long hampered Indiana's higher education system. Because some students can start on the path to a four-year degree closer to home and for less money, enrollment is likely to climb at Ivy Tech Community College, and more Hoosiers could earn college degrees.

Now students can complete up to two years of study at one of Ivy Tech's 23 campuses before transferring to one of Indiana's seven public universities to finish a four-year degree, saving thousands in tuition. One semester's tuition for 15 credit hours at IU, for example, is about $3,730, compared with less than $1,400 at Ivy Tech.

That kind of savings drew Angel Fecteau, 21, Indianapolis, to Ivy Tech. All but one of her general education courses will transfer toward the environmental science and health degree she'll begin at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis this fall.

"Transferring credits was extremely easy; I was really surprised," Fecteau said. "It's a great idea to get the classes you need. You don't want to take out loan after loan after loan."

Under the new agreements, Indiana and Purdue universities will accept more than 100 Ivy Tech courses at their main campuses. The schools also will allow Ivy Tech two-year degrees such as communications, nursing and criminal justice to transfer into similar four-year programs there.

"Many Ivy Tech students are first-generation students," said John Whikehart, chancellor of Ivy Tech's Bloomington campus. "We're providing access to public education to many more Hoosiers who may want to continue that education at a four-year institution later."

In recent years, the state has pushed more students to attend two-year colleges and satellite campuses as admission standards have toughened at flagship universities such as IU. Ivy Tech has made individual agreements on credit transfers with schools throughout the state, but establishing a statewide transfer structure has been difficult.

Experts say these agreements make progress toward that goal and signify a milestone in a state that a decade ago had no community college system.

"I think the changes are huge," said Jan Ignash, an associate professor in adult, career and higher education at the University of South Florida who evaluated Indiana's community college system for the state's higher education commission in 2001. "What Indiana is accomplishing is not only promising, but it says a lot of things about the state."

While many states established community college systems in the 1960s, Indiana relied instead on regional branch colleges, said Stan Jones, the state's commissioner for higher education. In the 1990s, the legislature started mandating that more credits transfer from two-year schools, but officials said some universities were reluctant to embrace the system. They feared that losing students to community colleges would mean losing money, too.

That began to change in the next decade as administrators from states with established community college systems joined Indiana's institutions. Ivy Tech was formally named the state community college in 2005.

That same year, the legislature passed a mandate that at least 70 community college courses transfer to the state's seven public universities. It also asked that the Commission for Higher Education establish 12 two-year degree programs that could transfer to similar programs at the state schools.

The deadline to meet all the requirements was June 30, but officials say it will be the end of October before the last steps clear the way for the degree program transfers.

"There has just been a sea change in attitude with respect to transfer," said Ken Sauer, associate commissioner for research and academic affairs for the Commission for Higher Education. "There's a whole new environment."

Easing the transfer of credits will help produce a more educated work force, said Kevin Brinegar, president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. That's a key priority, he said, because Indiana has one of the smallest populations of adults older than 25 with four-year degrees.

"Our number-one long-term challenge as a state is the quality, preparedness and overall skill level of our work force," Brinegar said. "This helps encourage, in many cases, adult students to come closer to maximizing their intellectual and skill capacity. That's a very good thing for our state and for our system."

P.J. Abbott is one of those adult students.

Abbott, 39, Bloomington, started at Ivy Tech in fall 2005 after he was laid off from the General Electric assembly line. The federal government will finance his two-year degree in design technology through the fall, but Abbott said he plans to pay his way through a four-year institution after his funding expires.

He said being able to transfer credits to any institution would allow him to continue his degree without moving.

"I'm kind of addicted to the school thing, but I have to pay the bills," Abbott said. "In my case, it would be great. I could not worry about disrupting my son while he's in school."

Enrollment at Ivy Tech has grown consistently over the past decade, but Indiana still lags other states. About 21 percent of Indiana's full-time undergraduates enrolled in community college, compared with 45 percent nationally.

"We have a long way to go," Jones said. "There are so many more students that need that opportunity."