A new website launched Monday to help Arizona college students transfer schools might be a small sign of an entire makeover of the state’s higher education system.
The website, AZTransfer.com, was made possible through the Getting Access to Higher Education and Degrees program, a recently established program that aims to redesign the state’s college and university system.
Funding for the Getting AHEAD program came from a $1.5 million grant from the Lumina Foundation, which donates money to universities and organization in order to help increase the amount of college graduates in the United States.
The establishment of the website is the first big milestone the program has overcome, said Katie Paquet, co-chair of strategic communications for the program.
“Getting AHEAD” is a multi-year project that has enough funding to last four years, Paquet said.
The new website is designed to help smooth the transition from high school to college, as well as help current college students through the transferring process, Paquet said.
Along with the website, the program has several more projects to help improve the higher education system planned for the future, Paquet said.
Getting AHEAD is divided into five committees, which include new institutional structures, governance and coordination, student center advising and career planning, higher education finance model, and strategic engagement and communications, Paquet said.
One of the main goals of the program is to provide a new funding model for the entire higher education system in Arizona — switching from population-based funding to a performance-based model, which would award universities funds based on achievement and production. This is just one of the changes that are scheduled to take place through this program.
It’s important for students to have a say in the changes occurring in their universities and colleges, said Robyn Nebrich, interim executive director of the Arizona Students’ Association.
Political science junior Michael Wong sits on the Strategic Engagement and Communications committee for the program and also believes it’s important for students to have a say.
“The reason why it’s so important to have student input is because it’s obviously their university that’s being redesigned,” Wong said.
The program’s three main goals are to expand capacity at all of the higher education institutes, serve more students at a lower cost and to increase graduation rates, he said.
The four other committees are mainly in charge of coming up with the innovative changes to higher education and Wong’s committee shares the progress with the public, he said. As of right now, the website is the only progress made so far.
It won’t be long, however, before the program makes a greater impact on students. The program will provide tools to help students as the percentage of jobs that require higher education increases, Paquet said.
“In order to be competitive, we need to produce more graduates and I think this grant will allow us to do that,” she said.
Reach the reporter at cottens@asu.edu.
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