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OPINION

WGU Tennessee helps fill higher-education gap

Kimberly Estep
  • The 3-year-old WGU system now has 2,700 enrollees, many of them working adults.
  • WGU Tennessee is affordable and allows students to move through material at their own pace.
  • Tennessee is poised to become a leader in education and workforce development, but challenges lie ahead.
Kimberly Estep, Chancellor of Western Governors University

Three years ago, on July 9, 2013, I participated in a well-publicized announcement that was both exhilarating and terrifying.

There I was with Gov. Bill Haslam and other government, business and education leaders from across the state, announcing the formation of WGU Tennessee, the state-branded version of Western Governors University. WGU is the self-paced, competency-based, accredited, not-for-profit online university formed in 1989 by a group of governors of Western states seeking to improve and supplement workforce development.

Now, for me, the excitement has not worn off; but the fear has. The last 20 years of my career were spent as an instructor, professor and administrator in traditional higher education, and I was well grounded in the strengths and weaknesses of that system. In fact, I had taught and taken online courses and earned a master’s degree in online learning. But WGU Tennessee’s affordability and approach, which allows students to move through material at their own pace and incorporates regular and substantive interaction with faculty, invigorated and excited me. I knew WGU Tennessee would change lives, and I was honored to be part of it. Now, three years later, it has already impacted thousands.

When we kicked off WGU Tennessee, there were about 690 Tennesseans enrolled in the WGU system. Today there are more than 2,700, and we are on target to hit 3,000 by the time of our third annual commencement here in September. There are more than 1,200 WGU Tennessee alumni across the state.

The students are mainly among the more than 900,000 working adults in Tennessee who had completed some college courses, but needed a flexible way to learn, advance and provide a better outlook for themselves and their loved ones. We have focused on that very demographic as we have worked hard to grow WGU Tennessee as one of the original components of Gov. Haslam’s Drive to 55 initiative to increase the number of college graduates in Tennessee to 55 percent by 2025.

We hit the ground running on July 9, 2013, and the work has paid off. My team and I have met with mayors and county executives, print and broadcast news media, business leaders and chambers of commerce, local education practitioners, and many other interested parties, as well as students and potential students, graduates and faculty in every major market in Tennessee.

I have driven more than 100,000 miles crisscrossing the state, from Johnson City to Jackson, from Chattanooga to Memphis, to Fort Campbell and Clarksville and Millington and Arnold Air Force Base, from Knoxville to Jackson, and Nashville and environs. We have found respect and support in every area of the state, and today we have students from 91 of the state’s 95 counties and have awarded more than $730,000 in scholarships to Tennesseans.

We are especially proud that we have developed formal partnerships with more than 50 business entities, all of which have a need for a better-educated workforce. Some of the largest include HCA, CHS and LifePoint Health here, Tennova Healthcare in Knoxville, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee in Chattanooga, FedEx and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, and the cities of Memphis and Nashville.

Our partnerships with major health care companies in our state are helping them boost the percentage of their nursing staff who hold a bachelor of science in nursing — in a convenient, cost-effective way. We have begun the task of providing more STEM teachers to fill the gap in Tennessee’s schools. Many of these new teachers are second-career adults with real-world experience. We are also helping train the tech workforce with degree offerings including data management and analytics, software development and information technology security.

We have signed articulation agreements with all 13 of the state’s community colleges. All of these agreements have been enhanced because WGU Tennessee deliberately limits its offerings to bachelor’s and master’s degree curricula in four subject areas: education, nursing, IT and business. Our tuition is approximately $3,000 per six-month term, or $6,000 per year, and has not been increased in the past eight years. Students complete as many courses as they can for a flat rate.

While we have achieved a great deal in the past three years, there is still much work to be done. Tennessee is poised to become a national leader in education and workforce development, but challenges lie ahead. WGU Tennessee and its 120 employees are honored to be part of this important work as we strive to help our state fill a critical gap in the higher-education landscape.

Kimberly K. Estep, Ph.D., is the chancellor of WGU Tennessee. For more information, visit the WGU Tennessee website, http://tennessee.wgu.edu, or call (855) 948-8495.