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This paper begins with a discussion of the significance of student transfer in Australia and, comparatively, in Canada, Scotland and the US. It examines in detail the upward student transfer and reverse transfer between degree-granting and non-degree granting educational institutions in Australia and overseas. Reverse transfer has been overstated but is significant, being mainly 'drop down' from baccalaureate to sub-baccalaureate programs. Students' enrolment practices are found to be complex and the author uses the term 'swirling' to describe the multiple enrolments, some sequential and others concurrent, in higher education and vocational education and training (VET). The extent of swirling is difficult to determine in Australia although a national survey revealed that 10% of graduates had qualifications from both sectors. The paper compares transfer policies among the countries studied and the effect of these on student transfer rates. The author concludes that student transfer reveals an 'informal and tacit structuring' of some systems. Informal segmentation within Australian and Scottish higher education is found to be at least as great as the formal segmentation of California's system in the US.