WTAMU announces new Embedded Associate Degrees

West Texas A&M University has announced new Embedded Associate Degrees to help students combat indebtedness, set to be implemented for sometime as soon as fall semester of 2024 and then fully in spring 2025.

As stated by WTAMU in a news release, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and Texas A&M University System Regents on Feb. 9 approved a plan that establishes eight new degree programs: associate of arts degrees in liberal arts and humanities and multidisciplinary studies, as well as an associate of science degrees in business, education, health sciences, mathematics, natural sciences and social sciences.

This new degree plan allows students with 60 semester credit hours to earn the embedded associate degree providing that the student has taken 42 hours of core curriculum courses and 18 hours aligned with their major. WTAMU President Walter V. Wendler stated that the new milestone is to help students reduce debt, remain goal oriented and help provide a "stopping point" for some students who need to put their education on hold for some outside reason.

"Four years is a long stint to look at for some students, and they may get started in their degree, then life happens. Maybe it is a financial challenge, maybe family matters, a job. It could be any number of things, but our goal was to create a stop-out point for students, and ours was originally attributed to decreasing indebtedness," said Wendler.

According to the university, students will not enroll in an associate degree program, so the plan is not meant to compete with community colleges. Rather, the degree will be automatically awarded to them once they meet the requirements. They will be mailed a diploma, but they will not take part in graduation ceremonies.

Dr. Neil Terry, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, stated in the release: “Our intent is still for these students to earn their bachelor’s degrees, and our commencement ceremonies will continue to reflect that.”

Wendler stated the new degree plans will help with student retention by also allowing space for students to return, whether it be those who are currently at WT seeking a place to pause or those who have previously left the university who can now request that their academic record be evaluated to see how many classes they’ll need to complete to earn the embedded associate degree.

The university president also said this will help students be able to reach higher salaries in the workforce for those who do receive the embedded degree, versus applying for a position with credit hours.

"When a person has to stop out, if that person has completed those first 60 hours and they have an associates degree, that makes them more employable in the workforce," Wendler said.

"Oftentimes employers, and as stated by our chair of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, he stated that if presented with two equally qualified people but one of them had an associates degree and the other didn't have a degree but had college credit, he would lean towards the person with the associates because they completed something," Wendler added.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, people with associates degrees earn almost 14 percent more in average weekly earnings. Those holding an associates degree are 38 percent more likely than those with a high school degree to be in a management, professional or other related job.

In addition, WT expects the embedded associate degree will aid in recruitment, attracting students who are interested in achieving both an associate and a bachelor’s at the same school. The eight embedded associate degrees represent each of WT’s six Colleges: the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, the Paul & Virginia Engler College of Business, the Terry B. Rogers College of Education and Social Sciences, the College of Engineering, Sybil B. Harrington College of Fine Arts & Humanities and the College of Nursing and Health Sciences.

According to WTAMU, the embedded associates degree of science in mathematics will be implemented beginning in fall 2024; the other seven programs will be implemented in spring 2025.

Other than now WTAMU, Tarleton State University, also in the Texas A&M University System, is the only other four-year state institution providing associate degrees.

For more information about the program or WTAMU, visit them online at https://www.wtamu.edu/ .

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: WTAMU combats student debt with Embedded Associate Degrees