An online university that started offering classes in Ohio a year ago is now a point of difference in the state budget process.
The Ohio House has stripped Western Governors University of its official recognition and the Senate wants to bring it back. Ohio Public Radio’s Karen Kasler reports.
That’s former Governor John Kasich in an ad for Western Governors University, a non-profit, all online university founded in 1997 by governors of 19 states. Kasich personally championed bringing WGU to Ohio in his last year in office, saying it was a higher education path for adult learners with busy lives. WGU has 3,300 Ohio students enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s program in four areas: business, primary education, information technology and health. Laura Rush of Columbus got her MBA in health care management from WGU.
“If you’ve got five kids at home and you need to do this after they go to bed at night, then tha’ts perfectly doable. If you’re working 8-5 and you want to do it in the morning before you go to work, it’s all there available for you. So it’s really set up, I think, for working adults who are trying to work this into everything else going on in their life.”