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  • Business Schools at Portland State University and Mt. Hood Community College Launch Start-To-Finish®

    Posted: 5/18/2017

    Portland State University’s (PSU) School of Business and Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) are launching a new partnership designed to increase accessibility of business education.

    The Start-To-Finish® program enables students to complete two high quality business degrees entirely online. Students start with an Associate of Science at MHCC and finish with a Bachelor in Business Administration with concentrations in either Management & Leadership or Supply & Logistics Management.

    According to data released in 2014 by the US Department of Education, online undergraduate education is especially relevant for nontraditional students - those students defined as older than typical high school graduation age, as well as students with family or full-time jobs. In the 2011-12 academic year, the average age of U.S. undergraduate students was 26.4 years. In this group, 60 percent of them worked and went to school full time while 54 percent had dependents.

    In addition to laying out a clear and comprehensive pathway for students, PSU and MHCC are supporting retention and completion rates by coordinating academic advising and other student services to help students seamlessly transition from community college to university.

    “This program developed out of a need we observed for our online degree program: Students were interested, but didn’t meet all the requirements to begin, so we were telling them to come back later,” reflects Erica Wagner, associate dean of undergraduate programs at PSU’s School of Business Administration.

    “We saw the opportunity to collaborate with MHCC as a provider of lower division online courses. MHCC has been a wonderful partner in this initiative. Now we meet students where they are at, when they are ready to engage, and we are committed to helping them through graduation. Start-To-Finish® is the first partnership of its kind between PSU and a local community college and we see it as the start of many more projects.”