SEATTLE — The University of Washington and Washington State University are considering expansion on Seattle’s eastside through partnerships with other colleges, The Seattle Times reported.
Washington State University is exploring a partnership with Bellevue College, which already offers four-year, career-oriented degrees. Bellevue trustees have passed a motion authorizing a potential WSU partnership.
The University of Washington is keeping its plans quiet until an announcement in the spring. But the UW has been exploring a partnership with a Chinese university for a master’s program that could also involve a major Seattle area company, The Seattle Times reported Monday.
Bellevue College trustees 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.
WSU already has relationships with three other state community colleges: Everett Community College, Olympic College in Bremerton and Clark College in Vancouver. A Bellevue partnership was a natural next step, said WSU President Elson Floyd, because it’s the state’s largest community college.
Bellevue College currently has a partnership with Eastern Washington University, offering some courses and degrees primarily through videoconferencing. It’s unknown whether that relationship would continue.
If the Bellevue partnership materializes, some WSU professors and instructors would live in Bellevue and offer live classes, Floyd said.
The UW program is scheduled to open in mid-2016 as a pilot. It 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 or health could be topics, he said. Instead of following a typical path to a master’s degree, students would work in a program that might make them attractive candidates for jobs at existing or spinoff companies.
The program would be self-supporting, without the need for tax money, Jandhyala said.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
