Texas supports nontraditional student success
Until three years ago, nontraditional students had limited assistance when returning to school. In 2011 the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board adopted a program to address issues confronting returning undergraduates.
The Grad TX program (pronounced “Grad Texas”) aims to help nontraditional students return to college and finish their bachelor’s degree at a comfortable and convenient pace. The program began with eight Texas universities, including UHCL, and has increased to 13. These campuses offer flexible online and face-to-face programs designed for working adults returning to college.
“Finding ways to help adults return to finish the credentials that they have started are important for the Coordinating Board and Texas higher education institutions,” said Dr. David Gardner, deputy commissioner for academic planning and policy at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. “Within the last year we added six new institutions to the Grad TX program.”
UHCL began as an upper-level institution where nontraditional, working students could continue to pursue a higher education. The university offers upper-level and graduate courses in the afternoon, evening and online, which is one of the reasons UHCL was selected for the Grad TX program.
Grad TX targets over 40,000 adults in Texas who stopped attending college after earning 90 or more credit hours. The plan is to help create unique schedules that will allow students to complete their remaining 30 credit hours. Participating students are offered resources and tools to help with overcoming the difficulties of returning to school.
Nontraditional students often face challenges when returning to school. Examples include: schedule conflicts between school and work, curriculum changes or course requirement changes in degree plans since last attending college, and potential learning gaps.
“One of the biggest trials or difficulties was first, academically deciding what area of concentration and what career path to take,” said Joyce Delores Taylor, internship coordinator for the School of Human Sciences and Humanities, and former Alumni Association executive council chair. “Secondly, for family, having to make the difficult sacrifices of not being able to spend quality time with them and having to devote an enormous amount of time to studying for classes and staying focused. And third, if you are the nontraditional working returning student, you have to balance class and studying with your job and job responsibilities.”
Some online-only programs are available for those with inflexible schedules and limited availability. Examples of complete online undergraduate programs offered at UHCL include Bachelor of Science in Criminology, Finance, General Business, Public Service Leadership and Psychology. There are also a variety of graduate programs and certificate programs.
Old credit hours can be salvaged through course equivalency evaluations, and training programs or work experience can be evaluated into new credit hours. Online and on-campus resources are available for extra course guidance to those in need.
Reasons for returning and completing college range from person-to-person. A common motivation is the pursuit of better job opportunities; however, some people have expressed non-work-related goals.
“A few of the people I work with want a degree for non-work-related reasons,” said Guillermo Rodriguez, lead academic transfer advisor for the Grad TX program at UHCL. “They are coming back to get their bachelor’s degree because it is a personal goal or they simply want to show their kids and grandkids that they can do it.”
UHCL offers almost 90 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, several programs are completely online, attracting students from throughout the state.
“It’s interesting that I’ve worked with several students from the San Antonio, Dallas and Fort Worth areas because they wanted to complete their degrees but their local universities don’t offer certain online or evening classes,” Rodriguez said. “They were able to find our school through the Grad TX program and take the online courses they needed to graduate. For example, I know one student from San Antonio who completed her general business degree online.”
For further Grad TX program information, contact Rodriguez in the UHCL Office of Academic Transfer Advising by email at RodriguezG@uhcl.edu, or by phone at 281-283-2638. More program information can also be found at the main website http://gradtx.org.
