Ohio University’s regional campuses are not the university’s only connections to two-year degree programs.
In order to increase tuition dollars and the number of students graduating from OU, the university has built partnerships with 18 community colleges throughout Ohio and West Virginia.
The collaboration encourages students with an associate degree to finish their bachelor’s degree with OU, often through online education programs, said Deborah Gearhart, vice provost for e-learning and strategic partnerships.
During the 2012-13 academic year, online programs generated $52.5 million for OU in tuition revenue, Gearhart wrote in an email last December.
Community colleges partnered with OU can tap into any of OU’s online programs set up specifically for partnerships, such as the registered nurse, RN-to-Bachelor of Science in nursing (BSN) program. They can also suggest the creation of new programs.
OU’s RN-to-BSN program has been especially successful because of the increased number of hospitals that require nurses to have at least a bachelor’s degree, Gearhart said.
Nearly $28 million was generated by the RN-to-BSN program alone last year, she said.
“Sometimes the health programs at the community colleges are their strong programs and their bread and butter programs, and they don’t want to lose out on that,” Gearhart said.
Online nursing students made up about 95 percent of OU’s Athens campus online learning students, with 5,803 registered in the nursing major in Fall 2013, according to data from the Office of Institutional Research.
Most recently, the university signed partnerships with Stark State College in North Canton and Cincinnati State Technical & Community College, Gearhart said.
Gearhart said the two schools approached OU to create a partnership after hearing from other community colleges about the program.
Programs in which a student completes a two-year degree at a community college and a bachelor’s degree with OU benefit both participating institutions in terms of degree completion, which can increase institutional funding under the state’s funding formula, Gearhart said.
OU also tries to offer an easy transition between community colleges and its programs.
One of the five community partnership managers employed by OU works with each community college partner to ensure administrators, faculty and students have the information they need about transferring classes between OU and elsewhere.
“They’re kind of the university’s eyes and ears for anything the partners need while we’re doing the partnership,” Gearhart said.
As senior manager for community partnerships, Jodie Van Winkle serves four colleges in Southwest Ohio and oversees the other four community partnership managers in their geographic regions.
Van Winkle said she visits each of the colleges she oversees weekly or biweekly to make connections with students transferring to OU and manage agreements about transfer credit programs with the community college.
“The colleges really feel that being able to show the student a clear pathway is important, and that’s why those agreements are developed,” Van Winkle said.
And now that OU has community college relationships throughout the state (and one in West Virginia), Gearhart said eLearning hopes to branch out to the Appalachian region beyond Ohio.
OU’s Provost and Executive Vice President Pam Benoit has encouraged looking into new partnerships, said Rob Callahan, senior associate director for transfer initiatives.
“You’re not going to find a whole lot of these programs out there,” Callahan said. “I think Ohio University is doing an exceptional job at it, and I’m really proud of the effort.”
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This article appeared in print under the headline "Partnerships draw dollars, increase degree completion"
