Employees of JetBlue can now study in the sky without paying a dime. The budget airline announced on Monday a program that will guide them through an online pathway to an associate or bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State University, in Trenton, N.J.
The program is the latest company-and-college partnership that takes cues from the Starbucks College Achievement Plan — a program, created in 2014, that allows employees of the coffee-shop chain to take online classes at Arizona State University while continuing to work at the company.
But there’s a key difference between the JetBlue program and many other partnerships in the Starbucks-Arizona State model.
Most of the programs either reimburse tuition costs or offer discounts, requiring employees to foot at least some of the bill for their courses. But JetBlue employees won’t pay anything upfront: The company will cover the full cost of an associate degree.
To earn a bachelor’s degree, however, students would have to cover the $3,500 capstone course at Thomas Edison State, either out of pocket or through a scholarship.
In August the company started a pilot version of the program with 200 employees with at least two years’ seniority and with at least 16 credits from an accredited college or university already in hand.
Bonny W. Simi, president of the subsidiary JetBlue Technology Ventures, says that employees had long asked for tuition reimbursement, but that the company wanted to go a step further and foot the whole bill.
‘Success Coaches’ Are Assigned
As interest grows in the unbundling of higher education — the use of just the learning material from the college experience — Ms. Simi says the JetBlue program was made possible by the flexibility and affordability of competency-based education.
“We’ve mapped out degrees so that it’s basically higher ed but stripped away are the cafeterias, the football team, the big campuses, the dorm, and everything,” says Ms. Simi, who oversees the program. “It’s just the class.”
All of the courses are taught online, and students are assigned a “success coach” who meets with them in person to walk them through earning a degree. One reason many adult students never go back to pick up a degree, Ms. Simi notes, is that the process can be confusing for adults who haven’t been in a classroom for years.
In fact, the coaches apply to Thomas Edison State on behalf of the students. Once a coach sees how a student’s credits will transfer, and has discussed the student’s choice of degree — there are options in business and the liberal-arts fields — the coach creates a map of classes the student will take.
After the courses are completed, the coaches will pass along the grades for credit from Thomas Edison State, where students pursuing bachelor’s degrees will also complete their capstone projects.
During the pilot program, Ms. Simi says, JetBlue tested a variety of course providers, settling on three platforms: StraighterLine, Sophia Learning, and Study.com.
‘Power Through’
Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, has criticized the rise of partnerships between corporations and colleges. “I worry that this is being set up on terms favorable to the company, JetBlue, rather than terms ideal for the student,” he says. For Mr. Vaidhyanathan, the biggest concern about such programs is that students cannot use them to pursue degrees at colleges of their choosing. He wonders why students can’t have their tuition reimbursed for a traditional education at a local community college.
“Macro problems can only be solved by massive reinvestment in public education,” he says. “We already have a system that was generated to take care of significant portions of the American population that has difficulty accessing higher education. We just decided not to pay for it as we should.”
While Mr. Vaidhyanathan thinks deals like JetBlue’s are made chiefly to generate headlines, he hopes to see those experiments succeed. The coaching element, he says, may be the key to keeping students motivated to continue with coursework, a common problem among online programs. He says he wouldn’t be surprised to see more companies follow up with similar programs.
Stripped away are the cafeterias, the football team, the big campuses, the dorm, and everything. It’s just the class.
The first batch of JetBlue students is to graduate with associate degrees in September. Linda M. Phaneuf is one of them. A recruiter, she has worked for JetBlue for six years. She tried for years to get her bachelor’s degree, but marriage, kids, and college payments put her plans on hold.
Online education isn’t new to Ms. Phaneuf, who already holds an associate degree from the University of Phoenix. Online courses aren’t for everyone, she says, but they work for her because she is motivated to “power through” her degree. In the past few months she has taken 12 courses. “I’m impatient,” she says. “If I did this at night, it would take me four or five years.”
Ms. Simi agrees that the new program isn’t for everyone. It’s meant for older adults, with children, who are motivated to get a degree because it could lead to a better-paying job. “We do not teach you how to do college,” she says.
Ms. Phaneuf doesn’t know if she’ll stay with JetBlue after she graduates with an associate degree in September, on the way to a bachelor’s degree in October. She is not required to stay on. But for now, she’s happy where she is. “I’m a lot older than a lot of other people in this program,” she says. “I think it’s more for me than for my career.”
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