Skip to content
News and Updates

Category: Higher Education

External Affairs hosts state, federal staff for Husky for a Day

Posted on

Last week, the Office of External Affairs hosted Husky for a Day @ UW. The day took our guests from pre-application through graduation, providing an inside look into the Husky student experience for participants. Guests included state and federal legislative staff and higher education partners.

Participants started the day with a presentation from Associate Vice Provost Philip Ballinger on the holistic application review process. Next, everyone had a chance to stretch their legs while a student guide took the group on a tour of campus. Our final presentation of the morning was from Assistant Vice Provost Kay Lewis with an in-depth look at financial aid.

IMG_0173 edit
Interim Provost Baldasty, Dean Taylor, LeAnne Wiles and students discuss the Husky Experience

During the lunch hour, the group was joined by Interim Provost Gerald Baldasty, Undergraduate Academic Affairs Dean Ed Taylor, First-Year Programs Director LeAnne Jones Wiles, and three Huskies – Thomas Nugyen, Marisol Diaz and Aegron Ethen. The panel discussed and answered questions about the Husky Experience. Topics included the key skills, knowledge and abilities that are transferred from UW classrooms into meaningful student experiences like studying abroad, jobs and internships, research projects and participation in community organizations.

After lunch, it was time for class as participants joined students in Dr. Scott Freeman‘s Biology 180 course for a professional development session where they learned “how to be a Dawg.”

IMG_0176 edit
Learning how to be a Dawg

Finally, the day concluded with a stop at the UW Alumni Association office to hear about the work they do with Huskies post-graduation. The External Affairs team also took a moment to say thank you to participants for their ongoing work in support of higher education and our Husky students.

View more photos from Husky for a Day @ UW on UWGOV’s Facebook.

Universities react to Governor Inslee’s 2015-17 budget proposal

Posted on

On December 18, Governor Inslee released his plans to fund education in the 2015-17 biennium. You can find information about the Governor’s full budget proposal online here.

This is what Washington’s public universities had to say about Governor Inslee’s plans for funding higher education:

This week’s budget proposal from Governor Inslee makes important investments in early childhood, K-12, and higher education. However, it falls short of providing sufficient funding to expand student access, fund a tuition freeze, and increase degree production in high demand fields to meet current demand and make progress towards the state’s higher education degree goals.

Washington’s public college and universities are united behind a request to increase state investment by $198 million over the next two years. This additional funding would increase degree production in high-demand areas, improve student access and performance through targeted, evidence-based initiatives, and hold the line on tuition increases for an additional two years.

During the most recent economic recession, higher education in Washington state experienced some of the largest decreases in state funding in the nation. During that time, class sizes, time to degree, student indebtedness, and tuition dramatically increased while nearly 2,000 faculty and staff positions supporting the academic mission were lost. In 2013, the Governor and state legislature rallied to reverse this trend. New state investments in higher education allowed for the first resident undergraduate tuition freeze since 1986. Even with this recent funding, Washington still ranks 49th nationally in per student funding, including both state support and tuition.

We look forward to working with the Governor and the legislature to advance this request during the legislative session.

To learn more about how Governor Inslee’s budgets would impact the University of Washington, view the Office of Planning & Budgeting brief here.

The legislature will return to Olympia for a 105-day session beginning January 12. The state budget process will shift into higher gear following the state’s March revenue forecast, which will give lawmakers the most timely sense of how revenue is shaping up for the 2015-17 budget period.

UW ranks among top for return on college investment

Posted on

via President Young’s blog (a great source of news & info, bookmark it!):

The University of Washington ranks fifth among all public and private universities in the country in a survey that estimates the financial return on degrees.

 

“While financial return on investment isn’t the only value in a college degree, being fifth in the nation among all public and private universities certainly validates the power of a UW education and the excellence of our graduates,” President Michael K. Young said.

 

The research was done by PayScale, which surveyed college graduates to estimate the annualized return on investment.

 

View an interactive chart of the rankings on The Economist’s website.

UW launches online bachelor’s degree completion program in social sciences

Posted on

Via UW Today:

Beginning in the fall 2014 people interested in social sciences, who have already earned roughly two years of college credit or an associate degree, will be able to finish their bachelor’s degree online through a new completion program offered by the University of Washington.

…

The program is intended to provide a flexible, lower-cost option for individuals who want to finish their degrees online without coming to campus.

…

“This is a way of expanding UW access to students who are time- and place-bound, whose family or work commitments make it impossible for them to come to campus,” said Michael K. Young, UW president. “It is a way for them to finish their degrees and move ahead in life.”

Increasing access to UW resources is central to the university’s mission, Young said. “By adding online degree completion programs at a lower cost, we’re offering more opportunities for students to earn and benefit from a UW degree.”

…

“I applaud the university for developing and launching this second online degree completion program,” said Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle. ”If we are going to meet the educational needs of our state and grow our economy, it is critical that we offer innovative approaches to educate an increasingly diverse population of students. This degree offers an affordable, high-quality bachelor’s degree option for the nearly 1 million people with some college but no bachelor’s degree. I hope those who have dreamed of completing their college education will see this as an opportunity to take the next step in reaching their goals.”

The Atlantic: UW among best for dollar-for-dollar ROI

Posted on
Return on Investment
Photo: The Atlantic

According to PayScale data, the UW is #5 in the country in dollar-for-dollar return on investment (ROI) for a bachelor’s degree. And our computer science degree specifically is in the top 10 for ROI. Read more in The Atlantic.

Of course, long-term financial reward isn’t the only measure of the value of an education. Just surf through any issue of Columns magazine and you’ll find a treasure trove of inspiring ways UW alumni are using their degrees to make the world a better place.

Like the University of Washington on Facebook to get more news like this.

President Young interviewed by TVW’s Inside Olympia

Posted on

An interview with President Michael Young for the show Inside Olympia aired on TVW Thursday evening. The interview, by Austin Jenkins, covers a range of subjects, including the direction of higher education in the state, how to fund it successfully and what recent developments in online education and commercial development of university research mean for the future.

Watch the interview:

[tvw query=”eventID=2014030009&start=&stop=” width=”550″ height=”320″]

President Young’s statement on the passage of the Real Hope Act

Posted on

“Today’s action by the State Legislature was a vote of confidence in students and their importance to the future of our state,” said UW President Michael K. Young. “It sends a strong message that an education should be available to absolutely everyone. For years, our state has invested in these students’ success in our K-12 classrooms and in our communities. All students who work hard in school deserve an opportunity to go to college and have access to the financial resources to make it possible. Our representatives have passed a bill that will have a transformative effect on our students, their families and their communities for many years to come.

Gov. Inslee discusses STEM education at Summit

Posted on

This week Washington STEM hosted its second annual summit at Microsoft’s Redmond-campus. Over the lunch hour, the audience heard from Microsoft’s Brad Smith and Governor Jay Inslee on the importance of STEM education, both at the K-12 and post-secondary levels, to the state economy. (Read highlights from the day in this report from the Redmond Reporter)

In an interview with McKinstry CEO Dean Allen, Gov. Inslee noted that one of his leading indicators in the Results Washington program under “World-Class Education” is increasing the number of graduates in STEM and high-demand programs from the state’s public baccalaureate institutions.

The jobs “skills gap” is particularly troubling, the Governor noted, because it means that many high-skilled jobs the state is producing go to workers with degrees recruited from outside the state.

Answering a question about what’s next for the upcoming legislative session, Governor Inslee said he was pleased with investments in the 2013-2015 budget to increase Computer Science & Engineering enrollments at UW, WSU, and WWU — and that he hoped to continue that progress moving forward.

 

UW plays key role in state’s adoption of “Next Gen” science standards

Posted on

The Seattle Times reports that Washington will be the eighth state to adopt the “Next Generation Science Standards,” which outline what students should know about big ideas of science, key practices scientists and engineers use to solve problems, and fundamental concepts that apply across all scientific fields.

The Times highlights the prominent role played by the UW:

The University of Washington has played a prominent role both in developing the standards and in helping teachers teach them.

Philip Bell, director of the university’s Institute for Science + Math Education, was one of 18 experts brought together by the National Research Council to identify the key ideas and practices in science that all high-school graduates should know not only for their jobs and further education, but to become scientifically literate citizens.

Read more.