Students
completing their associate degrees at Southeast Community College now have the
option of making a seamless transition into a related bachelor’s degree through
Doane University at nearly the same cost. The Associate’s to Bachelor’s, or
“A’s to B’s”, partnership between SCC and Doane allows for new transfers to
receive either reduced tuition while attending Doane courses in Lincoln or
online, or a grant to attend Doane’s residential campus in Crete.
Dr.
Roger Hughes, Doane’s president and 1982 alumnus, and Dr. Paul Illich,
president of SCC, signed the institutional agreement cementing the partnership Sept.
26 at SCC’s Jack J. Huck Continuing Education Center.
“We’re
very excited about these agreements and the opportunities they present to
students,” Hughes said. “No matter where an SCC student is in their educational
journey or in their career, with this agreement, they have a clear,
cost-effective route to attaining a bachelor’s degree at Doane.”
The
partnership has been several months in the making, after Hughes and Illich met
prior to Hughes’s inauguration in April 2022, and involved the work of dozens
of Doane and SCC employees. Although Doane and SCC have previously created
articulation agreements to encourage students to transfer for specific
programs, this is the first time the two have partnered to build an
institutional agreement, which opens transfers to many more academic programs,
as well as athletics.
“As
more and more careers require new hires to have bachelor’s degrees, we’re proud
to offer this opportunity to our students to complete both their associate degree
and continue on that journey with Doane,” Illich said. “This agreement makes
that process easier than ever before for our students to further their
education and careers, to compete in athletics at the NAIA level and to reach
even greater success.”
Illich
said SCC offers a range of academic programs that complement what Doane offers
on its residential Crete campus, as well as degree programs offered at its
Lincoln and Omaha campus locations and online.
With
the completion of the agreement, next steps for both institutions include
working with enrollment and admissions teams to iron out individual program
requirements. More than 50 degree programs from SCC are currently listed as
options for students to transfer into around 18 of Doane’s degrees in similar
disciplines. This number may change as the process moves forward.
“This
is a great opportunity for students, whether they want to have a residential
campus experience in Crete or complete a bachelor’s degree while working or
caring for family,” said Dr. Lorie Cook-Benjamin, chief academic officer. “One
of the key pieces that Doane offers transfer students is that flexibility to
receive their degree on their terms.”
For an SCC student who
transitions to an undergraduate program taught at Doane’s Lincoln or Omaha
campus locations, or online, the university will provide early advising and orientation
programs exclusively for transfer students. Tuition will also be reduced by 15% for students transferring from
SCC, on a per-credit hour basis for up to two-and-a-half years for a student
who remains continuously enrolled while pursuing a
bachelor’s degree at Doane.
For an SCC student
who transitions to a bachelor’s degree program on Doane’s Crete
(residential) campus, Doane will
provide early advising and orientation programs exclusively for transfer
students, and will provide an
annual $20,000 SCC partnership grant for four semesters of consecutive and
continued enrollment. Student-athletes transferring from SCC are also invited
to have conversations with coaches about continuing in athletics at the NAIA
level in baseball, basketball, cross country, golf (men’s only), soccer,
softball and volleyball.
For
more information about transferring to Doane, visit doane.edu/admission-and-aid/transfer-to-doane.