Ohio University recently extended its outreach efforts across the river with its first out-of-state community college partnership.
On March 4, Ohio University and Mountwest Community & Technical College signed an agreement that eventually will allow Mountwest students to transfer their credits to OU. With this collaboration, students with associate degrees from the West Virginia community college will be able to complete bachelor’s degrees from OU in two years or less by building on their previous coursework.
These students can receive either a technical and applied studies or a criminal justice degree from OU after earning an associate degree in a related area from Mountwest.
Since 2008, OU has formed similar collaborations with several Ohio community colleges. Since OU began forming these partnerships with community colleges, the number of students enrolling at OU through the collaborations has grown from 15 to 554, according to Linda Lockhart, manager of communication for OU’s Regional Campuses and Outreach.
The agreement with Mountwest marks the first partnership to cross state lines.
OU will allow Mountwest students to transfer up to 90 semester credit hours, the equivalent of three years of coursework. This would allow students who have completed a two-year associate degree to take a third year of community college courses and transfer those as well, leaving them with just one year of OU courses needed to complete a bachelor’s degree.
“This makes the Ohio University bachelor’s degree very affordable,” said Keith Cotroneo, president of Mountwest. “Community college rates are significantly lower than university rates; this ends up being a really good financial deal for students who choose this path.”
Students would be able to take OU classes online, as with most of the other community college agreements, but Mountwest’s proximity to OU’s Proctorville Center and Southern campus will also allow them to take on-campus classes if they choose.
Officials at both schools are working to determine the specifics of the program and hope Mountwest students can begin studying at OU as early as this fall.
Anyone who has completed a degree at the community college is eligible to transfer credits. Linda Buckosh received an associate degree from Lorain County Community College in 1976 and recently transferred those credits to OU to complete a bachelor’s degree in technical and applied studies. She is taking her last class now and will finish in June.
“I decided to go back to school because that was a lifelong dream of mine,” Buckosh said, adding that the ease in transferring her community college credits was what made finishing her degree possible. “I would never be able to do this otherwise.”
OU works to make coursework as accessible as possible for students at community
colleges, mainly by offering the necessary courses online, said Carissa Anderson, director of Articulation Services for eLearning Ohio.
“The great part about these relationships is that these students may not have any other option as far as getting a
bachelor’s degree,” Anderson said. “Everyone who works with this says it changes their lives.”
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