New System of higher education emerges in Utah, new appointments confirmed
On July 1, the Utah System of Higher Education merged with the Utah System of Technical Colleges to create one education system for Utah.
Earlier in the summer, the senate also confirmed Gov. Gary Herbert’s appointments to the new Higher Education Governance Board.
David Woolstenhulme, who became Commissioner of Higher Education on July 1, elaborated on what the merger will mean for college students.
“One of the critical things of the two systems coming together is now we have both technical education and two PhD programs at Utah State University and the University of Utah,” he said. “Now we’re meeting the needs of industry. Before, with two systems, it worked fairly well, but with one board we’re really making sure all workforce needs are being met.”
Woolstenhulme said the merger will determine who should be providing what in regards to education.
“Each institution will be providing whatever it is in their expertise,” he said. “For instance, we wouldn’t want USU to be providing the programs that Bridgerland Tech is providing and vice versa. So it’s really going to help us align the programs to where they’re best suited.”
In a press release from the Utah System of Higher Education, “meeting the rapidly changing needs of a growing workforce” was listed as one of the advantages of this new, merged system.
Woolstenhulme said the board asked themselves how Utah education can meet the needs of future industry.
“The answer is providing our students with what they need. That was to have one system,” he said. “It was better aligned with industry and filled the needs of students and industry partners.”
The press release also listed addressing capacity needs in rural Utah as a goal. Woolstenhulme said that duty falls on USU.
“Utah State University, where it’s the land grant institution, has the responsibility of providing education throughout the state and they do a really good job of doing that,” he said. “So they’ve asked us to look at technical education as well as the degree granting institutions to make sure students across the state have access to these programs.”
Online class options are being used to deliver technical education to smaller communities in Utah, he said.
As far as efficiency, Woolstenhulme said combining the systems has already proven to be more cost effective due to sharing resources between the 16 colleges and universities in Utah.
“For financial aid, as far as the Pell Grant and government aid, it won’t affect students,” Woolstenhulme said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to create more scholarship opportunities when money is saved and keep tuition at a responsible and reasonable rate for students in the future.”
Woolstenhulme said the discussion of merging the two systems has been in the works for a couple of years.
“The legislature hired an outside consultant who looked at education across the state and gave the state planning commission three options. This was the option the commission and legislature chose,” he said.
Woolstenhulme added that there was little opposition to the merger.
“The legislature wanted to take their time to do it right and make sure they had input from stakeholders,” he said. “They really wanted to vet it and make sure it was going to best fill the needs of Utah for the future.”
The Utah Board of Higher Education is composed of 18 members and includes two college students. Woolstenhulme said the student names are submitted to the governor, who makes all of the board appointments.
The two current student members are Candyce Damron from Utah Valley University and Glen Rivera from Bridgerland Technical College.
Woolstenhulme said the data and results of the merger will be available to the public.
“We always release our data,” he said. “Our board is going to put together a strategic plan which will identify our state attainment goals. All of that information will be available to the public as we move along.”
@harriskarcin