Despite all the publicity it has attracted, the Western Governors University has received just 75 applications for admission in the two weeks since it opened its World-Wide Web site for enrollment (http://www.wgu.edu).
University officials said computer glitches -- which prevented some people from connecting to areas of the Web site where they could see course listings and enroll -- were partly to blame. It took about 10 days to fix all the problems, officials said.
They also said the lower-than-expected application rate might be partly attributable to students’ taking the institution seriously and wanting to learn more about it before deciding to enroll. “It points out that students are pretty serious about this,” said Jeff Edwards, the university’s director of marketing.
He said W.G.U. had received thousands of inquiries about its programs, particularly its competency-based degrees. In the programs, students can receive degrees based on knowledge they have acquired from a variety of sources, including courses provided by universities and companies participating in W.G.U. In early business plans, university officials had projected that as many as 600 students would enroll for such degrees, and for competency-based certificates, in the first year of operation.
The institution had also projected that as many as 5,000 students would use W.G.U. in its first year to locate and enroll in traditional distance-education courses listed on the Web site by participating colleges and universities. So far, only 10 people have used the site to enroll in such courses.
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Section: Information Technology
Page: A35
