Online University Launches New Scholarship for Business Students

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Jul 01, 2010, 11:35 ET

Western Governors University Offers Scholarships Valued at Up to $3,000 for "Future Business Leaders"

SALT LAKE CITY, July 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Western Governors University, www.wgu.edu, has created a new scholarship program aimed at helping business professionals prepare for leadership positions by completing their bachelor's degrees. The Future Business Leaders Scholarship, valued at up to $3,000 per recipient is open to candidates currently working in business fields who have completed at least 60 college credits. The online university will award up to 20 scholarships to qualified applicants.

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To qualify for this competitive scholarship, applicants must be employed and working to advance their business careers, possess an associate's degree or have completed 60 hours of college work with a GPA of 3.2 or better, and submit letters of recommendation and a personal essay. Scholarships will be credited toward WGU tuition at the rate of $600 per six-month term, renewable for up to five terms. For more information, go to www.wgu.edu/business_leaders or call 1-866-225-5948.

Eligible degree programs include:

B.S. in Business Management
B.S. Business—Information Technology Management
B.S. Business—Human Resource Management
B.S. Accounting
B.S. Marketing Management
B.S. Sales and Sales Management

WGU's online business degree programs are ideal for working adults who are motivated to advance their education. All online, the coursework is competency-based, which allows students to progress in their degree programs as they demonstrate their knowledge rather than earning credits for time spent in class. Course materials and learning resources are all design for independent study, so students can schedule their study time to fit their busy lives. Tuition at non-profit WGU is affordable, $2,890 per six-month term, and students who can commit additional time to their studies may be able to complete their degrees more quickly, reducing the overall cost of their education.

About Western Governors University (WGU)

"[WGU is] the best relatively cheap university you've never heard of."– TIME magazine

Recently featured on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, WGU is the only university in the U.S. offering competency-based degree programs and the only non-profit, fully online university in the country. WGU offers degree programs in Business, Education, Information Technology, and Healthcare Professions, including Nursing. Since its inception in 1997, WGU has grown into a national institution, serving more than 19,000 students in all 50 states.

As a non-profit with a mission to make higher education accessible, WGU strives to keep tuition affordable—tuition for most undergraduate and graduate programs is less than $6,000 per year and has increased less than $200 in the past four years. WGU is self-sustaining on tuition, and does not rely on state or national support to fund its operations.

WGU is regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and nationally accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). WGU's Teachers College is the first and only exclusively online provider of teacher education to receive accreditation from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). WGU nursing programs have been accredited by the Commission for Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).

The university has earned the support of more than 20 leading corporations and foundations. They include institutions such as AT&T, Dell, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, Hewlett-Packard, HCA, Microsoft, Oracle, Qwest, SunGard Higher Education, Sun Microsystems, American Express, and Zions Bank. More information is available at www.wgu.edu.