Students graduating from New River Community and Technical College will now be given automatic admission to schools in the West Virginia University system to build their associate degrees into bachelor’s degrees.
West Virginia University in Beckley and New River Community and Technical College have partnered up.
Last week, the agreement between the two institutions was announced and will allow New River Community and Technical College graduates automatic admission into West Virginia University’s system, even WVU Tech. The system supports programs for 13 different bachelor degrees, which will allow graduates of New River CTC to expand their associate degrees.
Dr. Bonny Copenhaver, who serves as New River CTC’s president, said in a quote from WV Metro News that one of the benefits of the partnership is that her students will have to deal with less competition: “A lot of time higher ed appears to be competitive, that we are competing for each other students, and certainly for WVU Tech, I think that has been the history. It’s nice to have a different history now, a history where we share the students we have,” said Dr. Copenhaver.
WVU Tech’s President T. Ramon Stuart expanded on this idea by talking about the academic benefits for River CTC students, saying, “We are giving students an opportunity to take a path from New River all the way to potentially a doctorate degree,” he said. “Most importantly, help them go to places they never dreamed of going.”
He also went on to talk about the economical benefits to the students, saying, “Ultimately, we want to make higher education more accessible, but we want to keep it affordable.”
Stuart noted the poetic nature of the timing between the announcement of the partnership, and the commencements of WVU Tech and New River CTC, saying, “It’s unique because our commencements fall on this same day this year, New River goes first, and we will go second. One of the things we want to do is activate this in may, where people walk across the stage at New River, and at the other end of the stage, we are welcoming you, and we’re saying happy to have you.”
Some examples of bachelor’s degrees that New River CTC graduates will be able to build into are farming, sustainable food, agribusiness management, sociology, political science, psychology, history, and chemistry.
More information about New River Community and Technical College can be found at the school’s website.