GA Colleges Detail Plans to Add 250,000 Post-Secondary Grads by 2020

Responding to Gov. Nathan Deal's Complete College Georgia initiative launched last year, all of the state's institutions in the University System and Technical College System have submitted plans for how they will meet the governor's goal of adding 250,000 post-secondary graduates to the state by 2020. For Georgia's research universities, graduating more students translates to more workers prepared to enter careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. Some of the strategies include enhancing instructional delivery and improving access for underrepresented groups and military veterans.

Each of the institutions was tasked with developing plans that addressed data collection and analysis to identify areas for improvement, partnerships with K-12 to improve readiness, access to college, the reduction of time to earn a degree, new models of instruction and learning, and the transformation of remediation.

Highly regarded as one of the nation's top research universities, the Georgia Institute of Technology submitted a plan to the governor built around a new organizational structure focused on helping meet the national priorities for producing more STEM graduates. Georgia Tech has awarded 32,393 bachelor's degrees over the past 10 years, 74 percent of which were in STEM fields. To increase degree attainment, Georgia Tech will focus on three areas, including:

• Improving access and completion for target student populations, including researching issues that impact low-income students, underrepresented minorities and military veterans.
• Restructuring instructional delivery such as providing support for courses that are traditionally challenging, many of which are considered "gateway" courses for STEM majors, and delivering more web-based courses through a partnership with Coursera.
• Enhancing partnerships with K-12 primarily through programs that create pathways for Georgia Tech students to become K-12 teachers.

To a lesser extent, the University of Georgia (UGA) and Georgia State University (GSU) also plan to increase the numbers and diversity of students graduating in STEM fields. UGA plans to enhance instructional delivery through a primary focus on existing STEM initiatives and the creation of an Office of Online Learning. GSU plans to increase the number of students graduating in STEM fields by 10 percent by FY15 and 20 percent by FY20. The institution already has a number of initiatives underway to reach this goal, which are overseen by a campus-wide STEM coordinator.

The college completion plans are available in their entirety at: https://www.usg.edu/usgweb/complete_college/.

Learn more about Georgia's world-class research universities and their ties to economic development at SSTI's 16th Annual Conference being held in the heart of Technology Square on the Georgia Tech Campus.