Originally published in GTR Newspapers  

In October, officials from Tulsa Community College and Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology signed an agreement to make it easier for Tulsa-area students to obtain an associate degree, move seamlessly into a bachelor’s degree and complete all the required classes on TCC’s Northeast Campus.

The partnership between the two higher education institutions involves transfer agreements in high-demand and technology-related fields such as Information Technology Instrumentation Engineering Technology, and Civil Engineering Technology.

TCC and OSUIT officials signed the articulation agreements during a ceremony at TCC’s Northeast Campus. Students who earn TCC’s Information Technology associate degree program can transfer their earned credits and pursue a bachelor’s of technology degree from OSUIT. All classes are delivered on the TCC Northeast Campus and allow students and workers the opportunity to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills to advance in their careers.

“TCC produces the largest number of transfer students for public and private universities in the state of Oklahoma,” says TCC President and CEO Leigh B. Goodson, Ph.D. “Strong and effective partnerships between TCC and other higher education institutions enable our students to complete the first two years at a greatly reduced cost and finish their four-year degree close to home and work.”

In addition, students who qualify for Tulsa Achieves, directly from high school, can earn an associate degree and complete the first two years of the four-year degree without the cost of tuition and fees.

“Colleges can no longer look at each other as competitors, we must work together to ensure students are getting an affordable and effective education that best suits them and their goals of entering the workforce,” says Dr. Bill R. Path, president of OSUIT. “This agreement makes the path from one degree program to the other as smooth as possible and ensures that students have the education and skills they need to go right from the classroom to their career.”

Administrators from both institutions who took part in the signing ceremony include Dr. Leigh B. Goodson and Dr. Bill R. Path, as well as Dr. Greg Mosier, vice president of academic affairs at OSUIT; Dr. John Gibson, provost at TCC Northeast Campus; Dr. Patrick Green, associate dean of the business, information and engineering technology division at TCC; and Jennifer Butler, faculty member in the school of engineering technologies at OSUIT.