A new state grant could help Michigan community college students get their associate degree, even if they transfer early to a longer program.
The $255,000 grant is supposed to encourage the state’s public universities to tap into a system that lets them better track those transfer students’ academic progress. Doing so would allow the students to get an associate degree from their community college once they meet the requirements.
The grant is from the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential. It’s going to the Michigan Association of State Universities to facilitate the program.
MASU CEO Dan Hurley said getting an associate degree helps students keep going.
“It’s a motivating achievement that encourages them to double down, earn that baccalaureate degree and then move on to the next step in their educational career endeavors,” Hurley said.
Hurley estimated it could take around one or two years to get the data sharing program fully running between public universities and community colleges.
He said it’s a matter of getting schools to put in the backend data management and information technology work to get everything set up.
“I really do think this should be probably the last domino outside of doing the actual on-the-ground work that has to take place at the universities." The amount of money in the grant "might not sound like a lot of dollars but I think it will have a meaningful impact,” he said.
Michigan has set a goal of having at least 60% of the working-age adult population with a degree or work certificate by the end of the decade.
