Missouri is addressing college affordability with an
initiative called “15 to Finish” that encourages students to take 15 credit
hours each semester. Fewer than a third of students at Missouri public
institutions take 15 credit hours per semester, according to the nonprofit
group Complete College America, even though that’s what it takes to graduate in
four years.
As part of the program, the Missouri Department of
Higher Education is working with Complete College America on promotional
materials and ways to personalize the initiative for each campus in the state.
“In many cases, students need to take just one more
three-hour course every semester to graduate on time,” Zora Mulligan, Missouri
commissioner of higher education, said in a release.
“But completing 15 hours of college credit each semester, students can graduate
earlier, enter the workforce sooner, and save thousands of dollars in
education.”
An issue for many students is that they are already in
the workforce, trying to make ends meet while attending classes. The University
of Missouri-St. Louis has been working to push more traditional students to
take 15 credit hours for the last year, raising its four-year graduation rate
to the highest level in school history, but administrators remain mindful that
it’s not for every student.
“Lots
of our students are holding full-time jobs, making it more difficult to have
students managing a workload of 40 to 50 hours per week and classes,” Adam Bryd
Jr., dean of enrollment services, said in an article for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “But we’ve done this already. We’ll just work
case-by-case, looking at their work schedule and class schedule. In many cases,
our students find they can pick up an online class to get them those extra
three credit hours.”
