Expanding Access to Quality Education
As a university, WGU won't rest until everyone has access to education. This means continually innovating for the benefit of students and developing education pathways that provide opportunity and promote lifelong skill development. WGU's academic organization and faculty is built around student needs, placing the student at the center of everything we do.
"I’ve long admired WGU’s bold commitment to empower each student with a personalized, affordable, and career-advancing postsecondary education. WGU is uniquely poised to equip students to thrive within today’s rapidly evolving workforce.”
—Courtney Hills McBeth
Chief Academic Officer and Provost
Graduation Is The Goal
Access without attainment does not deliver on the promise of higher education. To measure whether we're expanding access, we must measure growth in credentials earned.
Source: 2023 Annual Report
Making College Work—For Everyone
Providing equitable access to populations historically not well-served by higher education is the first step toward closing the opportunity gap and ensuring our collective resilience. These populations include students from communities of color, low-income families, rural locations, and/or families in which previous generations did not attend college. According to self-reporting at the time of enrollment, 74% of WGU’s students come from at least one of these populations.*
*Source: 2023 Annual Report
Recognized for Innovating
WGU is recognized year after year as a leader in higher education. Our people take pride in making a difference by providing value to our students and offering high-quality programs and courses. Working with industry partners, developing a robust competency-based education program, and developing strategic innovations to bring educational access to more students are just some of the ways we are focused on making a difference.
WGU Councils
Assessment Council
As a competency-based education institution, the core of our practice is to prove competency through assessments, not time spent in a class. To maintain WGU’s credential value, we partner with our Assessment Council to advance innovation and integrity in our assessment and evaluation processes.
Current Assessment Council members:
Randy Bennett
Norman O. Frederiksen Chair in Assessment Innovation
ETS
Ph.D., Columbia University
C. Victor Bunderson
Professor, Instructional Psychology & Technology
Brigham Young University
Ph.D., Princeton University
Peter Ewell
Vice President
National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS)
Ph.D., Yale University
Brian Gong
Executive Director
Center for Assessment
Ph.D., Stanford University
Neal Kingston
Distinguished Professor in Educational Psychology,
Director Achievement and Assessment Institute
University of Kansas
Ph.D., Columbia University
Sue Lottridge
Chief Scientist
Natural Applications at Cambium Assessment
Ph.D. James Madison University
Ric Luecht
Professor of Education Research Methodology
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Liberty Munson
Director of Psychometrics
Microsoft
Ph.D. University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Donna L. Sundre
Executive Director, Center for Assessment and Research Studies (retired)
James Madison University
Ed.D., University of North Carolina - Greensboro
