The University Without Walls (UWW) program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst was one of the original seventeen programs founded in 1971. It has maintained its initial focus on working adults and “first generation college” students while taking the program mostly online in 2008. It managed that transition successfully, along with the transition from State funding to being financially self-supporting.
UWW/UMass’ transition from State funding to self-supporting began as a policy decision made by the Staff in response to an increasingly difficult funding environment at UMass in 1995. It was fueled by an embrace of degree programs customized to the needs of public and private sector employers in Massachusetts, including MassMutual Insurance, and the Mass. Departments of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Early Education and Care. The tuition from these programs was collected through Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) at UMass, which kept them for the program’s use, minus the usual, heavy administrative overheads.
Continuing cuts to its State funding, culminating in a three-year deadline to become profitable issued in 200?, led first to the entire program being funded through CPE, and then to a reorganization of its curriculum, streamlining its portfolio and degree planning processes and creating a number of newly required “Reflections” courses on common portfolio topic areas, like leadership, organizations, technology, and public policy. In 2008, UWW’s courses went almost entirely online and their recruitment went global. Matriculated students multiplied four times in the six years following these changes.
From its humble beginnings to its current financial success, UWW has continued to offer students with diverse backgrounds an opportunity to complete their undergraduate degrees through an individualized area of concentration and credits for a narrative portfolio of student learning from experience. It continues to emphasize writing, critical thinking, and the integration of professional experience and liberal education.
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The students highlighted in this video represent just a small sampling of the eclectic mix of the UWW population. They are drawn from Rick Hendra’s UWW 340: Reflections on Organizations course, which was given the task of self-organizing this Collaborative. From a Cuban-American interested in organizational studies, to a mother in early childcare, to an ex-Marine, now successful businessman, to a community services worker, this video shows the importance of a UWW education for people who otherwise might never have found a practical and effective way to finish the education they’d once started on.
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