BOSTON (SHNS) - With the higher education landscape shifting due to investments in free community college and financial aid, Massachusetts officials are honing in on quality and affordability concerns, infrastructure, and transfer credits through new committees. Higher Education Commissioner Noe Ortega previewed the objectives of the Commission on Higher Education Quality and Affordability, the Public Higher Education Capital Needs Working Group, and the MassTransfer Steering Committee during a recent informational hearing. The groups were created through the new state budget, which also invested $117.5 million to cover tuition and fees for community college students, an investment that supporters hope will eventually steer learners to four-year institutions and tackle the state's workforce woes. Ortega said the quality and affordability group will meet in November, with an initial report to the Legislature due by Dec. 15. Members are tasked with evaluating financial assistance programs for tuition, books and supplies, plus other costs of attendance and student debt. "Cost transparency is extremely important for our students and families," Ortega told the Joint Committee on Higher Education Thursday. "Programs that improve student success is another focus, (and) retention and recruitment of faculty and staff, which is important if we're going to make sure that there's a quality provision of post-secondary opportunities for our students." The group needs to file its final report on March 31. Members are also reviewing "financial assistance program design and models to efficiently increase state assistance, improve outcomes and reduce student costs," according to its statutory charge.  Ortega said the capital needs working group, which is evaluating improvements for decades-old facilities, has begun meeting. There's an estimated $4.5 billion in deferred maintenance across 28 million square feet of properties that are jointly managed by public colleges and universities and the state's Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance, according to Ortega's presentation. "If we're going to get anywhere near to that dollar amount, we're going to have to become creative on how we leverage the $150 to $250 million that you've seen invested in cycles over time," Ortega said of yearly state investments in higher education construction projects. Education Secretary Pat Tutwiler said investments are also needed to support the state's clean energy transition, including decarbonizing and modernizing buildings. "We look forward to working with the Legislature and our administrative colleagues on a new work group to study the needs and to identify the opportunities and funding strategies by the end of this calendar year so that we can make progress in this really important space," Tutwiler said. The group will report on "the feasibility and impacts of establishing a permanent financing structure using income surtax revenues for the issuance of debt for the benefit of public higher education capital needs," the process for prioritizing capital needs, the state's bonding capacity for public higher education capital projects, and recommendations for future bond bills, according to the budget. Ortega said the MassTransfer group plans to meet this fall and will seek input on issues such as using common course numbers across lower-level classes to help with transferring credits. MassTransfer aims to lower the costs of earning a bachelor's degree, including by offering pathways for students to earn associate degrees at community colleges and then transfer to a state university or the UMass system, according to the Department of Higher Education. Credit transferability is an important topic for returning students who attended some college classes but never earned a degree, Ortega said. "We are working to see how we can leverage not just dual enrollment, early college, prior learning assessment type of things, as well, for secondary students, in order to make sure sure that they can transfer those into the classroom," Ortega told Rep. Carmine Gentile, who had asked about DHE's efforts in improving transfer pathways for community college students. "And not just transfer them into a college or university, but receive some sort of credit toward their degree, as well," Ortega continued. "Many institutions will give you credit for an assessment or prior learning, but you may not necessarily get credit towards your degree. That makes a big difference." Committee co-chair Sen. Jo Comerford praised education officials for their work on transfer credits, calling it a "very exciting" endeavor. She and Sen. Ed Kennedy asked about any problems DHE is encountering on transfer credits across academic disciplines, as well as what additional support can be provided to community college students as they move on to state universities or UMass. Ortega said he wants the MassTransfer group to offer recommendations for how DHE can make the transfer process more seamless and what actions may be needed from the Legislature. "We'd love to know the pain points too, because we'll hear some of them, especially from the four-year institutions, the concerns about the very highly technical degrees at the four-years," Comerford added. "I really want us to understand in the Legislature how to be the best allies to the administration as you try to chart those pathways."