Morehouse College, an all-male Historically Black College and University (HBCU), has announced an online program with reduced tuition for Black men who have some college credits.
The program’s flexibility will allow students to set their own pace finishing and with the program being online, students in the program do not have to be on campus or stick to a typical academic calendar.
Morehouse President David Thomas told NPR he came up with the idea while attending alumni events after he was hired in 2018.
“It almost never failed that someone would pull me aside and say, ‘Is there some way I can finish my degree? I feel this amazing connection to Morehouse, it did so much for me.’ But for one reason or another, they never actually got their degree,” Thomas told NPR’s All Things Considered.
Morehouse will partner with 2U, INC., a leader in educational technology, for the online program. Initial programs will launch in August 2021 and will include a bachelor’s degree completion program in business administration. Under the partnership, Morehouse will maintain control of hiring faculty, developing the curriculum, course requirements, admitting students, and all academic instruction.
Men with existing college credits and former Morehouse students who were unable to finish and earn their degrees are eligible for the program.
Enrollment is expected to begin this spring and those interested can receive more information here. According to Morehouse, there are more than 3 million Black men today who attempted to achieve higher learning but never finished their degree.
Allowing Black men the chance to finish their degree at Morehouse will also help them financially. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2019, the average weekly salary for someone with a high school diploma was about $730 dollars. For someone with a bachelor’s degree, the average weekly salary was $1,200.
“There has never been a more important time for the impact of Morehouse to scale,” Thomas said in a statement. “The challenges we face as a society today require exceptional leaders with superior critical thinking skills, a high moral compass, and a tireless pursuit for a just world. These are the kinds of leaders we’ve been producing since our founding. We look forward to continuing educating and uplifting Black men and men of color. The accessibility of an online education allows us to deliver the Morehouse experience and education to countless men who can bring their light to the world in the same way alums like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jeh Johnson, Spike Lee, Senator Raphael Warnock, and countless others have.”