Dive Brief:
- A San Francisco-based startup is offering a one-year college alternative for students to quickly “skill up” in a demanding work environment, and it will not cost students anything until they've graduated and are earning an annual salary of at least $50,000, according to Campus Technology.
- MissionU founder Alexander Braun says the long-term goal is to change the paradigm of higher education, and hopes to assist those who received some undergraduate education but did not attain a college degree.
- The majority of the courses will be taught online, but students must be near enough to the city where the cohort is based for occasional meetings.
Dive Insight:
College enrollment is dropping for many reasons, but one of the reasons is that some students do not see the benefit in attaining a degree, especially when they consider the student loan burden that could accompany the decision. Alternative credentialing programs often offer shorter time to completion and the promise of a direct pathway into the workplace, which stands in contrast to the narrative facing the traditional higher education complex today. Though such programs may not carry the weight of a degree from the college in question, students worrying of committing to a full four-year experience may gravitate towards name recognition over an untested model.
In previous years, career and technical programs were typical of community colleges and for-profit universities, but the trend has been increasing among universities of all kinds, and it could work as a way to plug the gap of lower enrollment.