In an announcement that could have implications for the affordability of education and professional development, and possibly help address the skills gap, Gov. Scott Walker, University of Wisconsin System President Kevin P. Reilly, and UW Colleges and UW-Extension Chancellor Ray Cross have announced a competency-based degree model that they claim will transform higher education in Wisconsin.
Under the self-paced, competency-based model, students will be allowed to start classes anytime and earn credit for what they already know. Students will be able to demonstrate college-level competencies based on material they already learned in school, on the job, or on their own.
By taking advantage of this flexible model, and by using a variety of resources to help pay for their education, Walker said students will have new tools to accelerate their careers in a more accessible, affordable way.
“This new model for delivering higher education will help us close the skills gap at an affordable price to get Wisconsin working again,” Walker said in a press release. “As states across the country work to improve access and affordability in higher education, I am proud to support this exciting and innovative University of Wisconsin solution.”
Reilly said the stage for this service was set with efforts to expand transfer policies, enabling students to more easily move college credits from one UW campus to another or from another school into the UW System. He had tapped University of Wisconsin Colleges & Extension Chancellor Ray Cross to lead the project by working with other UW Chancellors to assemble a team of faculty members who are committed to developing new ways to assess learning outcomes in their respective academic disciplines.
“Together, these and other features should result in offerings that could let students reduce their costs dramatically,” Reilly added.
Cross called the project “an exciting challenge at a critical moment in time.” He said it won’t be easy to develop, but educators now understand which features and benefits adult students want. “Our goal is to address these needs in new ways, but we can only achieve that goal by efficiently leveraging all the UW System’s resources in a truly collaborative fashion,” he said.
The UW System expects to make this program available online to students as soon as fall of this year. A detailed summary of the proposal can be found here.
