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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/26/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
May 3, 2007 Tech colleges, UW team up Credit transfer programs help ease transition By Kara Patterson
Vosters, 18, whose high school graduation is May 26, said although he has taken mostly college preparatory courses, his math background doesn't meet UW-Green Bay's standards for incoming freshmen.
To prepare himself for the four-year university, Vosters will enroll this summer in FVTC's "1+3" program.
Approved in fall 2006, the program allows students pursuing a four-year degree to complete general requirements at FVTC and then transfer with sophomore status to either UW-Oshkosh or UW-Green Bay.
"I really didn't decide on what I was going to do for a long time and this came up. I could just start in this program and not fall behind," Vosters said. "When I transfer to Green Bay, they won't look at my past courses (from high school). They'll just see I have 32 credits and see me as a sophomore."
New and collaborative efforts between the Wisconsin Technical College System and the UW System are offering both recent high school graduates and nontraditional students options other than the traditional route to a bachelor's degree.
In order to provide employers with the workers they need, administrators in higher education have learned that technical colleges, two-year colleges and four-year universities must creatively partner to offer opportunities for workers wanting to use education to advance their careers.
"Wisconsin ranks among the top 10 states in numbers of residents who have associate degrees," said Ron Toshner, FVTC's executive dean of general studies. "But Wisconsin is in the bottom quarter of states for residents holding bachelor's degrees. We always talk about life-long learning, so we're helping students get that start."
The Wisconsin Technical College System and the UW System appointed a joint Committee on Baccalaureate Expansion about three years ago to explore strategies that might increase the number of bachelor's degree holders in Wisconsin.
The Northeast Wisconsin Educational Resource Alliance, a consortium of the region's public higher education institutions, has similar goals.
Programs such as "1+3" are easing the students' transition from a technical college to a university in part by streamlining the process of credit transfer from one system to the other.
"The objective is to provide additional opportunities for people while minimizing duplication," said University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley Campus Dean Jim Perry, NEW ERA's incoming chairman.
"One of the ways to maximize opportunities is to examine the courses that exist on all the campuses and determine whether or not equivalency exists among them," he said. "The whole idea of working together more collaboratively comes out of the public's expectations to not pay twice for the same service."
A regional initiative of NEW ERA that the UW System's Board of Regents approved in April is tailor-made for working adults who have earned their associate degrees from 23 programs at FVTC and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
Beginning this fall, those who qualify can pursue UWO's bachelor of applied studies, a new degree with a major in leadership and organizational studies. A similar program at UW-Green Bay is up for review by the Regents in May.
"The upper-division coursework in the major of our bachelor of applied studies degree is designed specially to build upon the knowledge people have developed through the associate degree and through work experience," said Marsha Rossiter, UW-Oshkosh's assistant vice chancellor for lifelong learning and community engagement.
For associate degree holders who need to further their education in order to move into management-level positions or take on other responsibilities at work, the bachelor of applied studies degree provides an affordable option, said Susan May, FVTC's executive vice president and chief academic officer.
"For at least the past two decades, the technical colleges in the region have had very strong relationships with private four-year institutions," May said. "What the new bachelor of applied studies brings, however, is that kind of degree completion option in the public higher education arena. That would be a financial advantage."
Freedom High School guidance counselor Deb Siebers said more students preparing for college now are viewing technical schools as a gateway to universities.
One of the students ranked among the top 10 academically in the high school's class of 2007 chose FVTC so she could take marketing classes in addition to general education courses and then transfer to get her bachelor's degree, Siebers said.
"Kids are looking at their options and are making wiser choices based on what they're interested in," Siebers said. "I think (the college systems) have finally figured it out and made higher education more accessible for everybody."
New bachelor's degree programs
The UW-Oshkosh's new bachelor of applied studies degree is geared toward working adults with associate degrees from selected FVTC and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College programs. For more information, or to register before Aug. 1 for this fall, contact Lynn Brandt, student services coordinator at UWO's Center for New Learning, at 920-424-0234. The university's Web site is www.uwosh.edu.
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