UNI waiving time restrictions for stopped-out grad students seeking return

• The University of Northern Iowa is waiving a time limit preventing graduate students who stopped out from restarting after a 7-year gap for master's programs and a 10-year gap for doctoral students.
• UNI also has initiated a faculty recruitment and retention program that would cover tuition costs for those in programs lacking terminal degrees.
• The efforts could bolster UNI's graduate programming and its enrollment numbers - which have dropped over the years.

CEDAR FALLS — Before COVID curbed enrollment in 2020 — hitting the University of Northern Iowa especially hard with a nearly 10 percent drop in total students and 20 percent drop in its graduate and professional count — the last time UNI reported a grad school cohort under 1,300 was 1993.

But the pandemic accelerated what had become a UNI slide in graduate enrollment from a high of 1,902 in 2017 to 1,218 in 2020 — the lowest tally in three decades.

“Our work ahead will focus on growing enrollment while continuing progress in areas consistent with our mission and strategic plan,” UNI shared with the Board of Regents in its 2020 enrollment report.

Four years later, UNI is in the throes of that endeavor — boasting modest progress by pulling up its graduate and professional enrollment to 1,279 and rolling out initiatives geared toward creating momentum, both at the student and faculty level.

“Life can present unexpected challenges,” UNI recently acknowledged in announcing a “special opportunity for students who have taken a break from pursuing their graduate degree.”

The opportunity is a wavier from UNI’s “recency requirements,” which for decades have blocked UNI graduate students who left without getting a degree from restarting again after a gap of seven years for master’s students and 10 years for doctoral students.

Per UNI’s existing rules, “Courses taken more than seven years (10 years for doctoral programs) prior to the granting of the degree cannot be used to meet degree requirements.”

But the UNI offer lifts that barrier, letting former graduate students admitted in 2011 or later to “seamlessly pick up right where they left off in their academic journey.” Or even try something new.

“Our goal is to create a flexible, supportive environment for UNI students who wish to continue their work toward a master’s or doctoral degree after a temporary break,” said Stephanie Huffman, associate vice president for strategic initiatives and dean of the College of Graduate, Research and Online Education. “We understand that life circumstances can change, and we want to make it as easy as possible for students to reengage with their studies.”

Departed UNI grad students who express interest in returning by June 15 can resume coursework as soon as August. They’re required to finish their degree within two years from their date of readmission, with just one semester-extension request allowed.

Given money so often is behind a student’s inability to complete a degree, UNI also is offering $500 scholarships for returning students.

“This scholarship aims to alleviate some of the financial burdens associated with resuming higher education, demonstrating UNI's dedication to facilitating the return of graduate students to their academic pursuits,” according to a UNI announcement, indicating returning students could “continue in the same degree program or explore other academic interests.”

“We want returning students to feel confident in their decision to resume their graduate program at UNI,” Huffman said. “Our team is committed to providing the guidance and resources necessary for a successful and fulfilling academic journey."

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Faculty recruitment

With a tri-part mission to bolster UNI’s graduate programming, attract faculty and keep those they have through additional supports, and further grow graduate and professional numbers, UNI last month sought regent approval for a new “faculty tuition reimbursement program.”

The program would add faculty to the grad-student ranks and “support the growth of faculty into terminal degrees … to serve UNI students at the undergraduate and graduate levels.”

“Some academic programs and departments uniquely struggle to hire faculty with terminal and/or master’s degrees,” according to the program proposal. “These programs and departments typically have applied areas where market demand often means that few people in the field attain the terminal degree and, in some cases, the master’s degree.”

The tuition-coverage program — greenlighted by the board — will be available to faculty in disciplines facing “distinct challenges in hiring qualified degree holders.”

Examples include interior design, construction management, applied engineering, nursing, and social work, according to UNI spokesman Pete Moris.

“We are having challenges with all of the above and a few more including some business programs,” Moris said.

Although UNI would prefer — and give top priority to — faculty pursuing a terminal degree at UNI; another Board of Regents university; any of the regents’ partnering institutions; or other colleges and universities in Iowa, UNI could support degree pursuits outside the state, according to its proposal.

Out-of-state programs must be housed in accredited institutions with “reputable online graduate programs, reviewed and approved by the cognizant college dean and provost.”

“This program is primarily designed to recruit and retain faculty in fields where there is a paucity of candidates with advanced degrees,” according to the program description, noting the reimbursed degree must align with the participant’s role at UNI.

“That is, UNI will only support the acquisition of degrees in programs that are viewed by accreditors as improving competencies in the discipline to be taught by the participant.”

And to clinch a reimbursement, any interested department, program, or discipline must have an active search underway or show the need for an existing faculty member to enhance his or her credentials, “primarily for reasons of accreditation.”

“Fundamentally, the justification must focus on the advantage of having the same person teaching the same courses but with an advanced degree,” according to UNI. “Given the claim that candidates with the advanced degree are difficult to find, the department should be able to provide evidence of this through an examination of recent search pools.”

For every year of support, the funded faculty member must give one year of service to UNI — in addition to the year of service while tuition support is being provided. Funding for each reimbursement must be worked out between the college deans and provost. And any faculty member who doesn’t achieve his or her service requirements has to pay UNI back.

“We see this program serving UNI for the long-term,” Moris said in reporting the administration hasn’t put a timeline on the offer. “It is likely there will always be programs (new, old and in the future) where it will be difficult to find candidates. The incentive may be sufficient for us to grow our own faculty or entice external professionals to join UNI as they work on their degree.”

UNI, as of October, reported a total workforce of 1,559, including 393 tenure, tenure-track, and non-tenure-track faculty. That is down from a total of 1,807, including 557 faculty, a decade ago in 2013, according to a February Board of Regents human resources report.

To the question of whether any faculty have applied for the newly-available tuition coverage program, Moris said negotiations are ongoing with one.

“We have one prospective faculty in a current search who has been offered this program in order to pursue a graduate degree,” he said.

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com