Metropolitan Community College and WGU Missouri Sign Agreement

MCC graduates will receive discounted tuition and seamless transfer at state-endorsed university

KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 14, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Metropolitan Community College and WGU Missouri announced today the signing of an articulation agreement that allows MCC graduates and staff to apply for free to WGU Missouri and receive discounted tuition at the nonprofit online university.

"The partnership with WGU Missouri provides a substantial benefit to graduates of Metropolitan Community College," said MCC Chancellor Mark James. "This agreement will make it easier and more affordable for MCC graduates, especially those with work and family obligations, to achieve the goal of a bachelor's degree."

The articulation agreement, the first to be announced with a Missouri community college, allows seamless transfer of credits and offers MCC graduates a five percent tuition discount at WGU Missouri. In addition, for the first year of the agreement, WGU Missouri will waive the $65 application fee. The agreement between the two institutions also allows for credits from MCC to smoothly transfer to WGU Missouri.

"WGU Missouri is delighted to partner with Metropolitan Community College," said Angie Besendorfer, Chancellor of WGU Missouri. "WGU Missouri's model was designed to honor the knowledge and experience of busy adults, and MCC shares our mission of providing flexible and affordable education to Missouri residents no matter their circumstances."

WGU Missouri was established in 2013 by Governor Jay Nixon as the state's only fully online, competency-based university. WGU Missouri allows adult students to take advantage of prior learning and experience to move quickly through material they already know so they can focus on what they still need to learn. The school's flat-rate tuition of about $3,000 per six-month term has remained unchanged for six years.

About WGU Missouri

WGU Missouri is a competency-based, online university created to expand access to higher education for Missouri residents. The university offers more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the high-demand fields of business, K-12 teacher education, information technology, and health professions, including Nursing. WGU Missouri employs full-time faculty who serve as mentors, working one-on-one with students, offering guidance, support, and individualized instruction.

Established by the state through a partnership with nationally recognized Western Governors University (WGU), WGU Missouri is open to all qualified Missouri residents. Through WGU, all WGU Missouri programs are accredited, and the university is nonprofit and self-sustaining on flat-rate tuition of about $6,000 per year for most programs.

More information is available at http://missouri.wgu.edu/community_colleges or by calling 855.948.8493.

About Metropolitan Community College

Metropolitan Community College, founded in 1915, has a mission of preparing students, serving communities, creating opportunities. As the largest higher education institution in Greater Kansas City, MCC's five campuses – Blue River, Business & Technology, Longview, Maple Woods and Penn Valley – serve more than 36,000 students annually through for-credit and non-credit courses and business services. Find more information at www.mcckc.edu or on MCC's news blog at http://blogs.mcckc.edu/newsroom.  

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SOURCE WGU Missouri