9/7/2011: WGU comes up a lot these days as a new model for higher education. Website here. Fully accredited, started by western states to provide 4 year online degrees. Mostly licensure fields, like teaching, nursing, accounting. Tuition is $2890 for a 6 month term. From their website:
- Your degree requirements are carefully developed to give you high-level competence in accounting and other business subject areas.
- You must pass or complete rigorous assessments (tests, papers, assignments) which will require you to demonstrate your competence in each subject area.
- You will work with your assigned mentor on your personalized Graduation Plan that establishes the pace at which you prepare for and tackle the required assessments in your course of study.
- Each term is a full six months in length. During each term, you can complete as much of your degree as possible.
- Progress is measured through Competency Units (CUs), which are credit equivalents that track your completion of the required assessments. To maintain full-time status, you are expected to complete at least 12 CUs in a term; more are possible.
- You and your mentor will determine the learning resources (online courses, textbooks, tutorials, etc.) that will best serve you in your competency development.
- With few exceptions, you will be able to choose when and where you study, and together with your mentor, you’ll schedule your assessments.
Growing at about 40% a year, current revenues $110,000,000. As usual, non-profit doesn’t mean nobody profits. The president, Robert Mendenhall, was paid $732,273 last year. IRS 990 here. The rest of the administrative structure looks really flat though. I wonder who their faculty are? Anyone moonlighting, please put up an anonymous comment.
Dog argues about basic UO Math.
To graduate from college 180 credits are ordained to be the standard. The typical UO class is 4 credits. To graduate from the UO then requires the student to take 45 classes. That kind of structure will never be cheap. Until we replace seat time credits with credits earned through, experiential learning, independent research, internships in the real world, etc –
nothing can or will change. Faculty lecture time is expensive – and its unclear if its worth it anymore.
Sounds great, but how’s their football team doing?
Their science programs appear to have virtual labs. Great way to save money, but maybe not a great way to prepare to set up a school lab. And I can’t wait to get the first shot from Nurse Prick who has done all her/his training with a virtual syringe.
The tuition works out to almost $6K per year. Not exactly a vast savings over the low-end state schools in the region.
This program might be worthwhile, but not a panacea.
By the way, I wonder what their graduation rates are?