$500K grant will boost Ohio associate degrees

Staff report

Columbus

Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Jim Petro said the $500,000 Credit When It’s Due grant recently awarded to the Board by Lumina Foundation will “move the state closer to our degree-attainment goals.”

Ohio is one of 12 states to receive a portion of the $6.4 million funding from the two-year Credit When It’s Due: Recognizing the Value of Quality Associate Degrees grant.

The grant is designed to study “reverse-transfer,” a process to award associate degrees to students who attended a community college, earned some credit and transferred to a four-year institution where they are enrolled and have completed the required coursework to earn an associate degree.

“Our Complete College Ohio Task Force is focused on developing and implementing strategies such as ‘reverse-transfer’ to help grow the number of Ohioans with degrees,” Petro said. “My vision of a ‘Success Road Map’ where there are incentives that students can earn along the way toward a baccalaureate degree becomes more of a reality through this type of degree-completion approach. Undoubtedly, this award from Lumina will go a long way toward increasing degree completion in Ohio.”

The Board of Regents, in applying for the grant, received letters of support from dozens of universities and community colleges from across the state, all of which said they understood the importance of the Credit When It’s Due initiative.

“Credit When It’s Due will provide a way to fairly credit community colleges for their work in preparing transfer students, help individuals — especially those who stop out of college before earning a baccalaureate degree — by providing them a postsecondary credential with proven currency in the labor market, and promote efforts to more clearly define the learning outcomes inherent in all associate degrees,” said Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation.