A University of North Texas initiative built to steer adults back to college has won its first grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, a $500,000 award announced by the university Thursday.
The money goes to the Texas Talent Accelerator, which UNT founded. Over 18 months it will pay for a regional re-enrollment effort that puts colleges and universities across North Texas under a shared framework for reaching people who left school without finishing.
The target group
According to UNT, more than 800,000 adults in North Texas between 25 and 64 have some college credit but no degree or certificate. The university says many stopped because of money, family or work. The stated goal of the grant is to get at least 2,000 of them re-enrolled at participating schools.
What the pilot found
The approach was tried this summer. Outreach went to more than 30,000 former students of Collin College and Texas Woman's University, the Denton campus that is one of the two pilot schools, and about 150 had re-enrolled at Collin College when fall classes began in August, UNT said.
The grant expands that work to more institutions, UNT among them. Partner groups are contacting students who stopped out within the last five years, reviewing the credits, work history and career interests each one already has, and pointing them to programs tied to fields where the region's labor market data shows demand, with health care and technology named as examples.
A returning student could finish at the school they left or at another school in the network.
