Washington’s two research universities are each exploring partnerships that could bring very different programs to Seattle’s Eastside — one that could make it easy to earn a bachelor’s degree in a community college, and another that would offer a master’s degree to students wrestling with major societal issues.
The bachelor’s degree program is being floated by Washington State University, which is exploring a partnership with Bellevue College. And the University of Washington is exploring a master’s degree program in partnership with a Chinese university, yet to be named, and at least one major Seattle-area company.
The WSU-Bellevue College partnership is just an idea at this point — both schools say they don’t even have a model for what such a program might look like.
The UW program is more specific and focused, but many of the details are under wraps until an announcement this spring.
The trustees at Bellevue College, in contrast, decided they wanted to go public early, “so we could have this discussion of what will serve our students and community the best, in the most open fashion,” said board chair Steve Miller. The trustees passed a motion authorizing a potential partnership with WSU.
WSU already has relationships with three other state community colleges: in Everett (Everett Community College), Bremerton (Olympic College) and Vancouver (Clark College). A partnership with Bellevue was a natural next step, said WSU President Elson Floyd, because it’s the state’s largest community college and the one that offers the most four-year, career-oriented baccalaureate degrees.
Miller and Bellevue College President David Rule said the board wants to develop a new kind of hybrid college that would take advantage of Bellevue College’s location off Interstate 90 in the Eastgate neighborhood.
The program would offer open enrollment and would be less expensive, “providing opportunity for those that don’t have the traditional means” to go to a four-year residential college, Rule said.
It would also be easier to gain admission.
Nearly a third of Bellevue College students are either working on an associate degree or planning to transfer to a four-year college.
The college — which dropped the word “community” from its name in 2009 — also enrolls several hundred students in six applied bachelor’s degree programs. An applied bachelor’s includes credits that aren’t transferable to other higher-education institutions, and is focused on a specific career field.
Bellevue College has a partnership with Eastern Washington University now, with the Cheney-based school offering some courses and degrees on the Bellevue campus, primarily through videoconferencing. Rule said it’s unknown whether that relationship would continue.
Floyd said he expects the partnership with Bellevue College, if it materializes, would mean some WSU professors and instructors would live in Bellevue and offer live classes, just as they do at the other colleges where WSU has relationships. Some classes might also be beamed to Bellevue College from Pullman via teleconference.
Looking for solutions
The UW program, which is scheduled to open in mid-2016 as a pilot, would allow students to earn a master’s degree while working on solutions to large-scale problems, said Vikram Jandhyala, the UW’s vice provost for innovation.
The future of cities could be a topic, he said, or social inequality or the future of health.
Instead of following a typical path of study to get a master’s degree, students would work on interesting solutions to those problems. The solutions might result in a new spinoff company, or make students attractive candidates for jobs at existing companies, he said.
