College degrees are more important than ever, as 65 percent of the job openings in the United States will require postsecondary education beyond high school, according to a report released by Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce.
However, affordability has become an increasingly urgent problem in higher education with some students continuing to suffer huge debts.
UW-Parkside enacted the Parkside Promise Plus Tuition-Free Program, which aims to take the pressure off students who are qualified under the requirements.
Eligible students have to be Wisconsin residents who are freshmen in Fall 2019, maintain a high school cumulative GPA of 2.5 or above and complete the university’s application.
The program is not limited to specific majors — it includes up to 40 academic majors that include a number of traditional and popular departments.
“Whatever the students find their passion as far as a particular academic discipline, we are able to help them explore that,” said John Mielke, the executive director of the marketing and communications department at UW-Parkside.
The ultimate goal of this program is not only to provide access for students to pursue higher education, but also support students to prosper with each passing day.
“[At UW-Parkside] there are programs and places whether to be academic advising, financial advising to do the right things to help students to succeed,” Mielke said.
This is not the first tuition aid program that UW-System offers to students. In February 2018, UW-Madison announced the Bucky Tuition Promise, which positions to ease the overwhelming financial burdens for in-state students.
The UW-Madison tuition program guarantees support for students who have a $58,000 adjusted gross household income or less to cover four years of tuition and segregated fees.
The key of the Bucky’s Promise is to offer equal opportunity for students who have low-income backgrounds to pursue higher education, according to UW-Madison’s Strategic Communications Specialist Carrie Springer.
To date, all of the efforts have centered on helping undergraduate students pay the full coverage of tuition and segregated fees, yet it is not impossible for graduate students to become eligible in the future.
“At this time the program is not being offered for in-state graduate students,” Mielke said. “But I think the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and University of Wisconsin-Madison are interested in making it easier for students to earn a university degree, whether that would be undergraduate or graduate.”
