It took Western Governors University 21 years to hit the 100,000-student enrollment mark. The online university is growing at a pace of 20 percent a year, but this week it made clear that its ambitions are far grander. It wants to expand — and not just with bachelor’s and master’s degrees — to accommodate 10 times as many students.
The nonprofit university, known for its competency-based teaching approach, has just created a stand-alone organization, WGU Advancement. It will raise money to create new degree programs, as well as new educational models designed to reach tens of millions of adults who need additional skills to succeed in the work force.
For many students, a college degree is the right choice, “but there are large numbers of people who need different solutions,” said Allison Barber, who was named on Wednesday to head WGU Advancement.
The new organization will help fuel the development of those new offerings in light of the economy’s changing needs for talent, said Barber, formerly chancellor of the university’s Indiana branch. “We need to be aggressive and assertive and agile and quick,” she said.
No firm date for reaching the million-student goal has been set, she added.
The new organization will award scholarships, just as the university itself has done. Western Governors has financed its scholarships primarily with revenue, but WGU Advancement plans to seek out funds for its new Pay It Forward scholarships from alumni, foundations, corporations, and other sources.
The effort is starting out with “over $1 million” in support from the Lumina Foundation, the Strada Education Network, and the State of Indiana, Barber said. She declined to specify the amounts donated by each source. A spokesman for the Indiana Department of Workforce Development said the “state’s investment has yet to be determined.”
Solicitation for the new scholarship fund began last week, when Western Governors sent emails to 5,000 current scholarship holders and 2,500 alumni scholarship recipients, asking them to donate. (“And please know that if you are not yet in a position to donate, we understand,” wrote the university’s president, Scott D. Pulsipher. “We couldn’t be more proud of our students and graduates, and we always want the best for you and your family.”)
Barber said she didn’t know what to expect from the pitch, since the university, being online, doesn’t offer the kinds of activities, like homecoming football games or building-naming opportunities, that are often used in alumni appeals. “Our appeal to alumni will be to support adults who are courageous enough to go back to college,” she said.
Western Governors, where students’ average age is 37, and nearly three-quarters of them work full time, currently has 110,000 alumni.
Goldie Blumenstyk writes about the intersection of business and higher education. Check out www.goldieblumenstyk.com for information on her book about the higher-education crisis; follow her on Twitter @GoldieStandard; or email her at goldie@chronicle.com.
