Only nine colleges nationwide belong to the federally-designated Work College Consortium, a group that requires all full-time students to work as part of their education. One of those schools is College of the Ozarks, or C of O, in Southwest Missouri.
Administrators say the work-college model is designed to blend academics, job training, and affordability. James Anderson is dean of the Work Education Program.
He explained that every full-time student completes hundreds of work hours each year.
"In the completion of their 560 hours, that covers in essence, a third of the cost of their education," said Anderson, "but we as a college kick in the other two-thirds through donors and other kinds of methods."
Anderson noted that at C of O, the work requirement is also a key reason students graduate without student loan debt. He also pointed out that research shows students who graduate debt-free are well positioned, much better than their peers who are graduating with a lot of it.
By working together through the Work College Consortium, Anderson said the schools are strengthening a model that treats work not as a side job, but as a core part of a student’s education and formation.
And because work colleges are so rare, he said the nine institutions rely on the Consortium to support one another.
"We meet pretty regularly and then have phone calls among the deans," said Anderson. "Because we are such a novel and niche sort of market within higher ed, it's really nice to have other deans that we can talk to at work colleges to bounce ideas off of."
Anderson said their collaboration is also about expanding access to college – especially with about 90% of their students having financial needs.
"Part of the mission that we have," said Anderson, "is to help people who are qualified, but could otherwise not attend college."
College of the Ozarks has a six-year graduation rate of about 61%, showing that a majority of students complete their degrees.
