Thursday, February 15, 2018

Students graduating from five North Carolina community colleges’ honors programs will now be able to enroll at UNCW and work toward earning full university honors. The university’s initial partners are Alamance Community College, Cape Fear Community College, Durham Technical Community College, Southwestern Community College and Wayne Community College. UNCW plans to pursue additional agreements in the future.

“We recognize that graduates of community college honors programs would like to continue their honors-level academics when they attend UNCW, and we want to facilitate this,” said Kate Bruce, director of UNCW’s Honors College. “To do so, we have worked with the honors program directors at several area community colleges to develop memos of understanding that encourage and simplify entry into the honors curriculum at UNCW for those students who did honors work at their community colleges.”

At UNCW, transferring community college honors graduates would be expected to complete a number of requirements to graduate with full university honors, including completion of honors-option courses with a “B” or better and a formal meeting with Bruce to determine how their previous honors courses apply to UNCW’s Honors College requirements. At present, more than 350 students transfer from the partnered community colleges to UNCW each year, and Bruce hopes to continue to grow that number.

“These new relationships align well with the university’s strategic priorities of fostering collaborative partnerships and preparing students for post-graduate success,” said Bruce. “We hope to continue reaching out to area community colleges and extending these opportunities to even more students.”

Currently, 711 scholars are enrolled in UNCW’s Honors College, including 40 transfer students.

-- Christina Schechtman

#HONORS