Western governors university |

Western Governors University, www.wgu.edu, will award 891 bachelor and master degrees to exam students from across the United States during their semi-annual beginning, which will be held Saturday 11. July at Kingsbury Hall in Salt Lake City. Although WGU students earn their degrees completely online, nearly 130 graduates will participate in the ceremony on Saturday, some traveling from as far away as Florida and Hawaii.

Dr. Samuel H. Smith, president emeritus of the Washington State University, will deliver the start address. A founder of the WGU Board of Trustees, Dr. Smith served as president of Washington State University for 15 years. During his tenure, the university gained international recognition for increasing educational opportunities for women and minorities.

Middle nationwide reports of climbing college costs, degree program reductions and enrollment caps, the Western Governors University continued Buck the trend. Registration, which is open to all eligible students, has risen to more than 14,000 since WGU accepted its first student in 1999. Unlike other universities, education is comparable to a state college about $ 6,000 per year and has only increased $ 100 per term in the last 4 years. WGU's mentor-guided, knowledge-based academic model allows students to use relevant previous education and experience to accelerate the completion of their degrees by using more time to their studies, and it can also help save tuition. WGU is the cost and availability, combined with more than 50 fully approved bachelor and master degree programs in high demand areas such as education, finance, information technology and healthcare, make it a good value in higher education, even in recessionary times.

WGU's Summer 2009 is the beginning 17. to the online university founded in 1997 by 19 U.S. governors. The graduating class of this 6-month period is the largest to date, with 514 Undergraduate and 377 graduate degrees awarded. For academics who are not able to attend in person, WGU will broadcast the ceremony live over the Internet via streaming video beginning at 9:45 on July 11. For more information, go to www.wgu.edu/july09.

About Western Governors University (WGU)

"[WGU is] the best relatively cheap university you've never heard of." - Time Magazine (Nov. 2008)
The only online university in the U.S. offers competence-based degree programs, WGU is nationally accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) and regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, one of the major accrediting commissions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). In addition, WGU's Teachers College is the first and only exclusive online provider of teacher education to receive accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). WGU nursing programs have been accredited by the Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).
WGU sponsors Online Student Survival Guide, a blog that takes many of the questions and daily concerns online students from any online college or university face.

Now, more than 14,000 students, WGU was founded by 19 U.S. governors, and is supported by more than 20 leading corporations and foundations. They include institutions such as AT & T, BearingPoint, Dell, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett-Packard, HCA, Microsoft, Oracle, Qwest, SunGard Higher Education, Sun Microsystems, and Zion Bank. WGU offers bachelor and master's degree in business, information technology, teacher education and health professions, with students in all 50 states. More information is available at www.wgu.edu.