UCM, State Fair Community College Sign Concurrent Enrollment Agreement Opening Seamless, Efficient Pathway From Two-year to Four-year Degree

Roger Best, president of the University of Central Missouri, and Joanna Anderson, president of State Fair Community College, recently signed a concurrent enrollment agreement when they met on the State Fair campus in Sedalia. 

WARRENSBURG, MO – Collaborating to create a seamless, efficient pathway from associate to baccalaureate degree, the University of Central Missouri and State Fair Community College have announced a new concurrent enrollment agreement. This agreement enables students to enjoy a four-year education experience at UCM while simultaneously taking advantage of the affordability of the community college and the diverse levels of academic preparation SFCC provides.

The UCM/SFCC Concurrent Enrollment Agreement was signed by leaders of both campuses who recently met in Sedalia. UCM President Roger Best and SFCC President Joanna Anderson added their signatures to documents while also being joined at the brief signing event by individuals from both institutions who worked to make this opportunity possible. This included Brent Bates, SFCC vice president for educational and student support services; Phil Bridgmon, UCM provost and vice president of academic affairs; and Randall Langston, UCM executive vice provost for enrollment management. A group of State Fair employees, many of them SFCC and UCM graduates, also attended the signing ceremony at State Fair.

Anderson praised the longtime relationship between both institutions, and thanked those involved who worked for the benefit of students.

“State Fair Community College prides itself on helping students reach their educational goals by providing transfer opportunities to outstanding four-year institutions, like the University of Central Missouri,” Anderson said.

The agreement is designed to promote the most efficient and effective use of resources to  provide a more direct pathway to obtain an associate degree at State Fair in route to a bachelor’s degree at UCM. Those who participate in this educational pathway will not only reduce the potential time and cost for completion of their four-year degree, but will also benefit from a seamless transfer of course credit between institutions, and the opportunity to use all amenities offered to students.

Among the program’s unique features, SFCC students will have the ability to participate in a 2+2 program (from State Fair to UCM) while enjoying benefits such as the utilization of all facilities on the UCM campus provided to regularly enrolled university students; enjoy joint advising between UCM and SFCC; live in UCM campus residence halls, if they choose; and receive a $1,500 scholarship (stackable) upon graduation from SFCC. This is in addition to taking advantage of library, dining facilities, university store, student union, sporting events, entertainment and cultural events, and more.

This program is currently open to students who meet Missouri residency requirements, and it could be expanded in the future to include non-resident first-time students from contiguous states, according to the agreement. Students seeking admission to the UCM/SFCC Concurrent Enrollment program must typically enroll full-time (minimum 12 credit hours per semester) in the program with courses exclusively at SFCC or at UCM and SFCC.  If a student takes courses at UCM, those courses will apply toward the major the student intends to pursue once admitted as a degree-seeking UCM student. Students who take courses at UCM under this program will pay for State Fair tuition, fees, and other institutional charges through State Fair.

Program participants are eligible to seek financial aid to help pay for the cost of their education, and will be assigned a Navigator at SFCC and a Success Advisor at UCM to help them stay on track toward degree completion. Additionally, both institutions will provide participating students a “roadmap” which articulates the purpose of the program and charts the path they must follow to be successful.

President Best called the signing of the UCM/SFCC Concurrent Enrollment Agreement “a great day for students” while also praising Anderson and Bates for their roles in making this new degree pipeline possible. As he acknowledged the positive longtime relationship between UCM and SFCC, he said enhanced discussions about more ways to collaborate in serving students began in 2018 after he became the university’s president.

“I invited each of them to come to campus to talk about expanding our relationship, and it was really President Anderson who mentioned the possibility of expanding it to something that is even greater than what we have seen in the past. So, we thank them. Our folks did a lot of strong, hard work to make this happen, but it was really the conversations we had with State Fair leaders to bring this idea to the table and that has led to this agreement,” Best said. “This is a historic moment for the university.”