Western Governors University making presence felt
Western Governors University (WGU), a national nonprofit, online university based in Salt Lake City, conferred 50,168 degrees to 49,564 people in fiscal year 2024, a historic milestone for the institution founded in 1997 by 19 U.S. governors.
Significantly, 67 percent of those graduates were from one or more underserved populations — students of color, first-generation, rural or low-income — a demonstration of WGU’s ability to impact the economic and social mobility of its students, the university said in a release.
“We are reinvigorating the pathway to opportunity and having an impact at scale,” said WGU President Scott Pulsipher. “WGU’s educational model, which is student-centric and personalized, works. We are positioning our graduates to start and advance careers in high-demand fields, meeting workforce needs and strengthening the vitality of their families and communities.”
WGU offers more than 80 certificate, bachelor’s and master’s degree programs in business, education, health and technology fields in all 50 states. It is among the largest universities in the country, with a focus on providing programs that are accessible, affordable, flexible and that address critical workforce needs.
Based on the most recent federal data, WGU leads all higher ed institutions in the U.S. in graduating teachers, conferring 5.2 percent of the bachelor’s degrees in education nationally. WGU also has a strong impact on the health care field, awarding 5.5 percent of all bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing. And WGU’s cybersecurity program is now the largest in the country, addressing another area of critical workforce need.
“Since its inception, WGU has worked to create an engine of economic mobility that accommodates everyone, especially those traditionally left behind by higher education,” said Joe Fuller, chair of WGU’s Board of Trustees, a distinguished management professor at Harvard Business School and co-director of the school’s Managing the Future of Work project. “It is now doing this at a scale no other institution matches, putting students from all backgrounds, circumstances and experiences on a trajectory for a better life. This is exactly the kind of momentum we need to energize our workforce and our communities.”
WGU students receive a strong return on their investment: Students pay less for their education, have lower debt at graduation and, on average, see a $30,000 income boost within four years of receiving their degree.
A 2023 Gallup report found that WGU alumni surveyed were twice as likely to say their WGU education was worth the cost; debt at graduation was less than half that of graduates nationally; and about 76 percent of alumni said they are “thriving” in their lives, approximately 25 points higher than the national average for college graduates.
Employers give WGU graduates high marks, too. In a 2023 Harris Employer Survey, 98 percent of 300 employers who participated said the WGU graduates they hired met or exceeded expectations.
“We are helping our students live their best possible lives, on a personal and a professional level,” Pulsipher said, “and this has generational impacts that ripple into the future. We also are providing employers with the highly skilled, work-ready and diverse talent desperately needed to maintain America’s prosperity and its competitive edge.”
WGU now has over 340,000 alumni and expects continued scaling as it both increases persistence among students and further expands access among the high-talent individuals for whom traditional, time- and campus-based models fail. WGU currently serves nearly 176,000 students, which includes the addition of more than 126,000 new students over the past fiscal year — up 28.2 percent over the previous year.
WGU is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, has been named one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, and has been featured on NPR, NBC Nightly News and CNN and in The New York Times.
