Starting in fall 2025, San Diego Mesa College is implementing a new Common Course Number (CCN) system, with the hopes of simplifying student transfer and aligning the course codes with the California State University system.
The new CCN policy is part of a statewide initiative to make transferring between California community colleges and public universities more efficient. This will be implemented in phases, beginning with higher enrollment classes like ENGL 101, MATH 119, PSYC 101, etc. By using the same course numbers for the same types of classes at all California community colleges, the policy is meant to help students understand which courses transfer, avoid taking the same class twice, and finish their degrees more quickly.
The change is required under Education Code Sections 66725–66725.5, introduced through Assembly Bill 1111, and must be in place across the state by July 2027, according to the California Community Colleges website.
Dr. Isabel O’Connor, vice president of instruction at Mesa, is part of the task force that developed Common Course numbering in 2022. O’Connor is also one of four people at the state level for the steering committee for CCN.
“It’s an effort to help students, because students take courses not just at Mesa. For example, within our district, you take them at Mesa, City and Miramar, and even some at Grossmont, and sometimes the same course has different numbers and titles, and what happened in the past is that when students transfer to institutions, it’s confusing, because you don’t know if one course is the same as another,” said O’Connor.
With the hopes of getting rid of confusion, the task force wanted to streamline the process, so that some courses that are particularly general education, and they’re going to have the same title and numbers.
In phase one, several high-enrollment general education courses will adopt new numbers and prefixes to match the statewide system. COMS 103 will become COMM C1000, ENGL 101 will change to ENGL C1000, and ENGL 205 will be updated to ENGL C1001. MATH 119 will convert to STAT C1000, POLI 102 will become POLS C1000, and PSYC 101 will be renumbered as PSYC C1000.
“So let’s say your English class will now be C1000…what happened is the state academic Senate got all the English faculty across the state together and said, here is a template that we need to look at, because common course numbering doesn’t mean that it’s a common curriculum. It’s just some elements are going to be the same,” said O’Connor.
Phases two and three will include more subjects that follow general education and major related classes. Phase two will be implemented in fall 2026, and phase three will be implemented in fall 2027, with the hopes of completing the statewide implementation by July 2027.
Students who have already taken these classes won’t have to take them again. Even though the course numbers and names are changing, the classes still count the same toward degrees and transfers. Anyone who finished a course before the change will still get credit for it.
“I think the students may have a bit of [a] rocky period initially because when you sign up for summer, it’s Communications 103, and then it changes to COMM C1000 for fall. We are working really hard with student services, information offices and the district that we create videos [and] charts, and you’ll see it on our website,” said O’Connor.
But many students, like Itzel Villalba, are unaware of these changes. Since the new system is still being planned, many students haven’t seen the updates or how it will affect their class registration.
“I feel like people need to be more aware of it, because not a lot of people know about it, so it needs to be more heard so people understand,” said Villalba.
Villalba has never heard of the CCN system and feels like it is something that needs to be better known. Villalba says more confusion can come from this system if students don’t understand what they are reading.
“I would not have known about it unless it came up on canvas and just was in my face to tell me these are the policies being changed, or if I got an email about it, but it just needs to be in my face to know about it,” said Villalba.
Students received an email from the San Diego Community College District on May 7, including a video with additional information they need to know regarding this change.
The new Common Course Numbering system is designed to make transferring between colleges easier and help students stay on track. While there may be some confusion at first, Mesa College is working to provide resources and clear information to help students adjust. With ongoing efforts to share information, the goal is to make the change as smooth as possible and help students finish their degrees more quickly, with the system fully in place by July 2027.
