The Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications has an exciting new offering for students: the ability to complete a bachelor of science degree online. The new four-semester program starts with the completion of an associate’s degree and allows students to learn online while completing the remaining sixty hours of coursework needed for a BS. 

This new opportunity falls under the department’s community engagement and leadership development concentration, which prepares students for careers in community or youth organizations, Extension, government, business and industry, or international environments. Department head Christopher Stripling notes that this appears to be the only online BS completion program in agricultural leadership, education, and communication studies in the country. The program is open to students regardless of residence, but out-of-state students should check with the UT registrar before enrolling to ensure their courses align with the University’s general education equivalent requirements. 

With options to complete a degree on campus or online for those with an associate’s degree, the department is reaching out to a totally new student demographic. “The development of this degree provides a pathway for students who typically wouldn’t look to UT to complete a BS, or those who have situations that wouldn’t allow them to be an on-campus student. This is really for a different type of student than we’re currently serving, and it helps us extend our land-grant mission,” says Stripling.

The department already offers an online master’s program (the only online master’s degree offered at the Herbert College of Agriculture), so conceivably, students could complete both the BS and MS online.

The outbreak of COVID-19 accelerated the timeline to launch this program. Originally intended to begin in 2023, COVID-19 regulations forced faculty to develop all classes in an online format in an extremely short period. So, preparation that might have taken a couple years to complete quickly came to fruition during the period of social distancing and working remotely.

The online program is already accepting students, and Stripling says interested and prospective students are emailing him. Departmental leadership has set a goal to have twenty students admitted and enrolled for the 2022 fall semester.

Visit the program’s webpage for more information.