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K-State 2+2 agreements help students plan for a bachelor's degree By Michelle Hall
Kansas State University has joined with various community colleges to offer 2+2 programs that put students on track to attain their educational goals, even when geographic restrictions exist. Students can complete an associate degree through their local community college and then complete an entirely distance-based bachelor's degree through K-State. The flexibility of K-State's bachelor programs eliminates the barriers that often prevent individuals from attaining higher education, said Betty Stevens, K-State associate vice provost for technology partnerships and associate dean of continuing education. A distance-based program allows students to reside in the location of their choice and work full time, if desired. The agreements create a visual guide for community college students to plan their transfer to a degree completion program at K-State. "The purpose of the agreements is to help nontraditional, place-bound students plan for a bachelor's degree program that involves both the community colleges and K-State," Stevens said. Curriculum guides are formulated for students all the time, but now with the 2+2 agreements, this planning is done in advance. "The students would have had to do it anyway, but now we're doing the planning in advance," she said. "It just makes it easier for students to plan for their bachelor's degree at K-State now that they can visualize what they need to do and when." This is a new opportunity offered by K-State and community colleges and is already expanding and growing, Stevens said. K-State has partnerships in the works with Allen County Community College, Coffeyville Community College, Johnson County Community College and Kansas City (Kan.) Community College, for degrees varying from food science to general business, and from family studies to social sciences. In addition, K-State has already signed 2+2 agreements with Hutchinson Community College, Barton County Community College, Colby Community College and Seward County Community College, as well as Austin Community College in Texas. The signed 2+2 agreements include: Barton
County Community College Barton
County Community College at Ft. Riley Colby
Community College Hutchinson
Community College Seward
County Community College Austin
Community College in Austin, Texas Stevens said the 2+2 agreements benefit students, K-State and the community colleges. "The agreement makes our degree programs more easily accessible to students who otherwise couldn't do them," Stevens said. "We're not looking at a large number of students, but we're making it possible for some students who need this option. "It benefits the community colleges because it encourages students to complete their associate degree before transferring to K-State," Stevens said. "We've worked it out to make it clear that this is to the student's advantage. "We will be seeing many more of these agreements throughout the state and outside of the state," she said. "All the community colleges we've talked to have been very excited about the idea." For more
information on K-State's 2+2 agreements, go to
Winter 2005 |
