Arizona’s public universities receive $4M grant to help returning students finish degrees
The federal funding will go toward expanding the AZ Comeback Initiative at the University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.
Arizona's three public universities received a $4 million federal grant to help students who left school early complete their degrees. (Unsplash stock image)
(Unsplash stock image)
The Arizona Board of Regents announced Tuesday it received a federal grant of nearly $4 million to support an initiative that helps returning college students complete their degrees.
The $3.97 million award from the U.S. Department of Education’s Postsecondary Student Success Grant Program will go toward expanding the AZ Comeback Initiative.
The University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University will use the money to support returning students through a new shared coaching model.
The program will focus on students who completed 60-89 undergraduate credit hours before leaving school.
Board Chair Doug Goodyear said the targeted students may have stepped away due to family issues or the high cost of school.
“They’ve already done much of the hard work, and we owe it to them to make the path back as clear as possible so they can earn a degree,” Goodyear said in a statement.
Arizona needs more workers with degrees
The goal is to help students gain degrees that can then support the state’s workforce.
According to data from the Center for the Future of Arizona, Arizona’s postsecondary attainment is not enough to fill the state’s 80,000 jobs that require at least an associate’s degree each year.
There are more than 726,000 Arizonans who earned college credits but left school before earning their degrees, according to the Board of Regents.
Funding for this journalism is made possible by the Arizona Local News Foundation.
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