The Detroit News
Dec. 11, 2022
Kim Kozlowski
Detroit students have a new pathway to a four-year degree at Wayne State University.
Officials on Monday are set to launch an initiative for students earning a credential from Henry Ford College that guarantees admission into Wayne State University to earn a four-year degree. The program is for all HFC students, including those who are simultaneously attending college while in high school. But the program will especially serve the more than 2,000 Detroit residents attending HFC, including those who are part of the Detroit Promise, which guarantees free college tuition.
“The best option for them to earn a four-year degree and stay in Detroit is to attend Wayne State University,” HFC President Russ Kavalhuna told The Detroit News in an exclusive interview. “This makes it clear and easy for them to do that.”
The program, to be known as the Henry Ford College Learn4ward and Wayne State Transfer Pathways, creates another opportunity for residents to increase their social mobility and removes another barrier in the statewide effort to increase the number of residents with a credential or degree and eliminate the racial and ethnic disparity gap by 2030.
It is the second partnership that Henry Ford College has unveiled in six weeks that does away with the need for students with a 2.5 grade point average to ask a four-year institution for enrollment and hope their credits will transfer. HFC’s first partnership announcement was in October with University of Michigan-Dearborn.
The program, to be known as the Henry Ford College Learn4ward and Wayne State Transfer Pathways, creates another opportunity for residents to increase their social mobility and removes another barrier in the statewide effort to increase the number of residents with a credential or degree and eliminate the racial and ethnic disparity gap by 2030.
It is the second partnership that Henry Ford College has unveiled in six weeks that does away with the need for students with a 2.5 grade point average to ask a four-year institution for enrollment and hope their credits will transfer. HFC’s first partnership announcement was in October with University of Michigan-Dearborn.
There is no magic bullet that is going to increase the number of residents with a credential or degree, said Greg Handel, vice president of education and talent for the Detroit Regional Chamber. Rather, it is a series of incremental steps.
Handel noted Henry Ford’s second partnership with a university transfer coincides with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s October signing of a $250 million bipartisan college financial aid bill, hailed as the biggest state investment in financial aid in decades, and is among efforts that are emerging to put higher education in reach of everyone.
“We are starting to put the building blocks in place to get to the goal,” Handel said. “Increasing financial aid is important, but it’s not going to change the landscape dramatically by itself. These kind of partnerships will change things, but not by themselves. But when you start to put them all together and bring leaders together to build on all these things and leverage them, that’s when you can start to move the needle. And that is what we are looking forward to.”
Nationally, 40% of people with bachelor’s degrees started at a community college, Handel said.
“So when you understand how important this pipeline from community colleges to universities is, and if you can do things to make that pipeline more efficient, you are going to end up with more bachelor-degree holders,” Handel said. “So seeing improvements like this is really important.”
This development will be discussed next week during a meeting of the leadership council of Detroit Drives Degrees, a Detroit chamber effort aimed at advancing degree attainment and retaining talent.
“We hope to see this innovation replicate,” Handel said.
It’s an exciting program for all transfer students and especially those who can transfer their applied degrees to WSU, said Ahmad Ezzeddine, vice president for academic student affairs and global engagement at Wayne State. Applied degrees are technical degrees such as an emergency medical technician certification. Such credits historically have not been accepted for transfer at four-year universities.
“It is not just articulating one program to another; we are looking at a broad set of majors,” Ezzeddine said. “Students in any of their majors can have a clear path to a four-year degree option at Wayne State University.”
Students who have transferred make up 35%-40% of WSU’s undergraduate student population, Ezzedine said.
“So it’s an important part of the population for us,” Ezzeddine said. “This partnership is very important.”
The program will officially be launched at noon Monday at Wayne State’s Tierney Alumni House, 5510 Woodward Ave., with Kavalhuna, WSU President M. Roy Wilson, Detroit Regional Chamber President and CEO Sandy Baruah and other leaders.