Life experience for college credit: Winthrop's newest degree program

Winthrop University’s new Bachelor of Professional Studies program will grant students college credit for their life experiences (presented in a portfolio). through portfolio presentations. The degree is set to launch in spring of 2020 and targets adult learners, military veterans and transfer students over the age of 25, known as post-traditional students.

The program was created to address a nationwide problem of failed transfer credit and lack of flexibility for students working full time.

“Winthrop has had plenty of adult students in the past but there has never been a program really designed specifically to meet their needs,” said Scott Amundsen, the Director of Professional Studies. “There is a prior learning assessment piece, a first for Winthrop, that allows students to take their job training or other things they’ve learned and build a portfolio and get up to 15 credits for those courses. We don’t like regression, and we hate it when students have to take a course that is something they’ve mastered in their life.”

Census data shows that there are 90,000 adult learners in the five counties surrounding Winthrop with over 60 hours of college credit and no degree, said Amundsen.

“For me, my military training only brought in a few things in college, which is frustrating when you have gone through years of training,” said Winthrop Transfer Orientation Leader and Mentor, Alannah Visbeck. “However, learning to drive an aircraft is hard to apply to a college class. I think the Professional Studies degree will allow Winthrop to look at transfer credits in a new way.”

The program has two specializations: organizational operations and health services. Six years of planning went into the degree, and faculty across all departments were involved in the process, said Amundsen.

Winthrop studied the success of similar adult learning programs nationwide.

“I have 25 credits accepted from my five years of experience in the marines,” said veteran and junior, Levi Walker, who attends a university that recognizes adult experience through a portfolio presentation. “I got nine credits for being a sergeant and going on deployment and then boot camp counted as the hardest elective of my life. It means a lot when your college sees that your life journey has importance in the classroom as well and gives you a way to catch up.”

Each class in Winthrop’s professional studies major meets for an hour and a half a week with the remainder of coursework completed online for students working full time. The expense is less than the Winthrop average at $447 per credit hour, with the same accreditation.

The program is based around the idea that every post traditional student has a different story and skill to contribute to the classroom.

“I took four years off of college after a severe concussion. In 2018, I decided to go back to school and on my first day back my husband was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma cancer,” said post-traditional sophomore, Nicole Smith. “I had put so much hope into going back to school and finishing my degree, but juggling both wasn’t possible so I made the hardest decision of my life to withdraw.”

“I know other people have had to stop college, work and help their family like me, and I think Professional Studies will be a game changer for them to be able to take all they have worked for and put it towards a college degree to make those experiences count.”