Originally published in the Dallas Morning News on August 28, 2024.
College debt is suffocating. Students take on lifelong commitments too burdensome for degrees that may not have substantial value. That, in turn, diminishes the integrity and worth of the higher education enterprise in the eyes of students, their families and the general public.
This is unacceptable.
Contributing to the problem is the overall dropout rate, which studies suggest is up to 40% among students who take on debt, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. That’s at four-year universities. In community colleges, fewer than 1 in 5 community college students graduate in three years with a two-year degree, according to Forbes.
Traditionally, the expectation for higher education has been “in at 18, out at 22.” That’s increasingly less common as demographics and aspirations change, but too often, elected officials, bankers and university leadership still cling to that model.
At West Texas A&M University, we know that model must be more flexible. Life is never predictable, and sometimes, our students aren’t able to finish their bachelor’s degree while following that four-year plan. That’s why this fall, we will begin offering associate degrees to students who complete 60 hours – 42 hours of core curriculum and 18 hours within their major.
West Texas A&M is the first university in Texas to offer what we call the “embedded” associate degrees. The first embedded associate degree in mathematics will be mailed before Christmas. Seven other embedded associate degrees will be awarded in May 2025.
The university-conferred associate degrees are certifications of progress. There are no graduation ceremonies planned; the degree is simply mailed to every student when they meet the requirements of 60 credit hours, the halfway mark of the baccalaureate degree. Importantly, these are not intended as terminal degrees. They are intended for people who aspired to attain a bachelor’s degree but were forced to put a pause on their education. At West Texas A&M, we are working to address real student needs.
The embedded associate degree will not compete with community colleges. According to the American Association of Community Colleges, the opposite is true. Tuition and fees at two-year institutions are one-third the cost of those at four-year institutions, and this plan does not change that. The embedded associate degree is a bonus, not the endgame.
Do university-conferred associate degrees provide benefits? Certainly. They offer a clearly defined point to pause their education when, as they say, life gets in the way. Students with an associate degree earn $938 a week, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, while those who have only some college credits earn $877 per week. And if they then return to school and complete a bachelor’s degree, they can expect to earn $1,305 per week. These are clear emotional and economic benefits.
This approach has already been tested in Colorado, where 2021’s Higher Education Student Success legislation offered senior universities the ability to confer associate degrees to students with 70 credits. Students who have paused their education have an associate degree that both benefits them in the workforce and encourages them to persist until they attain their bachelor’s degree.
Higher education is almost always a value proposition. At West Texas A&M, our leadership seeks new ways to address the challenges of educational debt, changing student demographics, increased life pressures on students and lack of degree completion. Our school’s goal is to enrich human satisfaction, instill a sense of accomplishment, and impact economic development for our region and, indeed, for the state of Texas.
This embedded associate degree program is a crucial step in that direction and a way of redefining excellence in higher education.
Walter V. Wendler, President of West Texas A&M University. His weekly columns, with hyperlinks, are available at https://walterwendler.com/.
