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New program supports STEM education

The University of Washington in collaboration with Washington State University is developing an “academic redshirt” program that will bring dozens of low-income Washington state high school graduates to the two universities to study engineering in a five-year bachelor’s program.

Learn more at UW Today.

Governor Inslee announces new appointments to Student Achievement Council

Governor Jay Inslee today made four new appointments to the Student Achievement Council.

The cabinet-level agency was formed last year to oversee the state’s higher education system, provide strategic planning and advocacy for increased student success and to align pre-K-12 and postsecondary education opportunities.

According to the Governor’s news release, the four new appointees are:

Jeff Charbonneau is a teacher at Zillah High School. He was Washington state’s teacher of the year and was recently honored by President Barack Obama as National Teacher of the Year because of his innovative focus and teaching success in math and science. He is a National Board Certified STEM teacher and created a statewide robotics competition in which nearly 1,000 students have participated.

 

Maud Daudon is president and CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and former president and CEO of Seattle-Northwest Securities. She serves on the boards for a range of organizations including the Bullitt Foundation and Seattle Biomedical Research Institution. She served as deputy mayor and chief of staff for the City of Seattle from 1998 to 2001 and spent six years serving as the chief financial officer for the Port of Seattle. She served on Inslee’s transition team and former Governor Chris Gregoire’s Higher Education Funding Task Force.

 

Karen Lee is the CEO of Pioneer Human Services, a social enterprise organization recognized as a national model for providing employment services, job training, counseling and services for people overcoming chemical dependency, mental illness and criminal histories. Lee was appointed to Western Washington University’s Board of Trustees in 2010 and served five years as Commissioner of the Washington State Employment Security Department.

 

Dr. Susana Reyes has served as Assistant Superintendent in the Pullman School District since 2006, providing leadership and oversight for district-wide instruction, curriculum development and assessment.  She also administers all state and federal programs including Special Education, Title I/LAP, Title II, Title III, ELL and Highly Capable. She will be joining the Mead School District on July 1, 2013 as the Assistant Superintendent of Special Programs.  Dr. Reyes is a first generation college graduate, earning her B.A., Ed.M. and Ed.D. at Washington State University.

Statement from UW President Michael K. Young on House Democrats’ budget proposal

“Today’s House budget proposal lacks significant, new state investment in public higher education. Washington ranks second to last in the nation — 49th — in higher education funding per student, with 25,000 jobs in high demand industries awaiting graduates we do not have the funding to educate. If we are to compete in the 21st century economy, we can and must do better.

“In the absence of significant, new state investment, we appreciate this budget allows for modest tuition increases, which will be necessary to preserve student access to a high quality education. If we want to keep tuition increases low, the state must adequately reinvest in our students and public higher education.

“There is much more work to be done as budget negotiations progress, and I look forward to working with the House, Senate, and Governor on getting this right.”

Statement from University of Washington President Michael K. Young regarding Senate Majority Coalition Caucus budget proposal announced today.

“Today’s Senate Majority Coalition Caucus budget proposal comes up woefully short for the UW and higher education. Of the $100 million in ‘new’ funding for higher education, the majority is derived from a 20 percent tax on our international students that we believe will price students out of their education and result in a loss of high-quality talent for our state. Even with this tax on international students, the caucus budget and its 3 percent tuition reduction provides less funding per student in the next biennium and several hundred dollars less than what was provided over two decades ago. Washington already ranks second to last in the nation – 49th – in funding per student in higher education. A budget like this will not allow us to maintain the excellence of the UW and meet the needs of our students, especially in building capacity for more graduates in STEM areas – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – and supplying our state’s critical industries with skilled and qualified workers. We can and must do better.”

President Young: Early learning and K-12 are UW priorities

President Michael K. Young speaking at an Alliance for Education event in Seattle this week.

(Cross-Posted from the President’s Blog)

President Young stressed the importance of early learning and called the UW’s new online bachelor’s completion program “a good thing for all of us” during remarks to the Alliance for Education in Seattle this week.

“As long as I’m president,” he told the group Thursday, “improving early learning and K-12 will be a major priority for the University of Washington.”

He said the just-announced online-only degree in early childhood and family studies is “a great example of how we are breaking boundaries and challenging conventional thinking when it comes to teacher preparation.”

“It’s a good thing for our early childhood educators, it’s a good thing for our littlest learners who will be learning from these well-trained teachers and it’s a good thing for all of us.”

 

UW Launches Affordable Online Degree Completion Initiative

Juliet Morrison
Juliet Morrison, Asst. Dir. of the Wash. Dept. of Early Learning, speaks at a UW press conference announcing the new initiative. Photo: uw.edu

Today, the University of Washington announced the launch of an affordable, online, degree completion initiative.

The initiative represents a concerted effort to expand high quality, University of Washington undergraduate education to the 900,000 working adults in Washington State with some college but no degree.

”If we’re going to meet the needs of our state’s economy and provide upward mobility for our citizens, we have to provide affordable, accessible, and high-quality educational opportunities to this critical population. This affordable, online degree option demonstrates the UW is willing to step up to this challenge. This is a great first step, and I hope they develop more,” State Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-Seattle) said in a statement.

The first degree offered this Fall will be in the area of early childhood education, with additional degrees to follow.

Classes will be offered in an all-online format for $7,000 per year (full time), which is less than 60% of the cost of our traditional, on-campus tuition.  Admission preference will be given to Washington State residents.

Goals for the early childhood education degree are three-fold:

  1. Provide affordable, flexible access to a high, quality, UW undergraduate education to working adults and returning learners in high demand fields.
  2. Expand the number of high quality, early childhood education providers in the state of Washington to bolster early learning efforts at the state level.
  3. Measure, evaluate, and improve the efficacy of online education in order to promote greater student persistence and success.

Read more at UW Today.

Report: 25,000 High-Skill Jobs Going Unfilled

UW Computer Science & Engineering Students.
UW Computer Science & Engineering Students Photo: cs.washington.edu

A new report out today from the Washington Roundtable shows that as many as 25,000 high-skills jobs are going unfilled in Washington State.

From the Seattle Times:

This week, the business group Washington Roundtable released a study that says 25,000 high-skill jobs in Washington are going unfilled — jobs that have remained vacant for three months or longer, because qualified workers can’t be found to fill them.

By way of background, UW had to turn away 425 qualified students from Computer Science & Engineering last year due to a lack of resources.

Employers, meanwhile, say they can’t get enough of UW graduates:

“We have a standing discussion with University of Washington computer science — anybody you graduate, we’ll take,” said Singh, CEO of Redmond-based Concur Technologies.

The Times story also highlights the painful cuts made during the Great Recession to public higher education in Washington State, and the need to begin to reinvest, especially in high-demand, high-cost fields like STEM.

“We’ve demonstrated that if you invest in higher education, there’s a clear return on investment,” said Steve Mullin, Washington Roundtable president. “When you try to think how we should invest our scarce economic-development resources, we’re suggesting this should be the priority.”

Read the rest of the Times story, and the Washington Roundtable report.

UW Graduation Rate Above National Average

A New York Times blog reports that 54.1% of college students who enrolled in fall 2006 graduated within 6 years.

At the UW we’re proud that our graduation rate is above the national average. In fact, 79% of UW freshmen graduate within 6 years. That’s the highest percentage of any public university in the state!

We’re also proud that the average time Huskies spend earning their degree is 4.3 years.

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