March 2021
August 2021
Campus opens in Farmersville
Campus opens in Celina
June : approved to oer three bachelor’s degrees
August: bachelor’s degree in construction management begins
2017
2020
2021
2022
2023
June : approved to oer up to ve bachelor’s degrees
January : Begins oering nursing bachelor’s degree May : begins oering cybersecurity bachelor’s degree
SOURCE: COLLIN COLLEGECOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
options at community colleges. Many area hospitals are hiring nurses with bachelor’s degrees because it helps them reach Magnet status, an accreditation achieved by maintaining a high standard of care, said Dr. Betty Veasy, director of nurs- ing at Collin College. Hospitals seeking Magnet status will hire nurses with an associate degree less often than those with a bachelor’s degree. And these hos- pitals usually give nurses a time- frame to earn a bachelor’s degree as an employment contingency, Veasy added. Students seeking a Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Collin College must already have a registered nurse license. This pathway provides a convenient transition for students who are already in the school’s asso- ciate degree programs. Veasy attributed both the smooth- ness of the segue and the relation- ships students build with faculty to the program’s success. The Bachelor of Applied Tech- nology in Cybersecurity is struc- tured similarly. Students must already have an associate degree in cybersecurity. The cybersecurity bachelor’s degree program had 20 students in fall 2020, its inaugural semester. In its second semester, the num- ber grew to 51. Last fall, 91 students were enrolled, which surpassed the number ocials gave the program to keep it stable in the long-term. Brenden Mesch, dean of aca- demic aairs workforce at the col- lege’s Frisco campus, said he and other leaders are concerned about
matching faculty with student demand. Cybersecurity Director Ervin Fren- zel attributes the exponential growth to the quality of instructors. Faculty are experts in industries, including banking, insurance and the military. “We have people with Ph.D.s in computer science encryption, and that’s a rarity already because there’s only so many people who go down that path,” Frenzel said. “And they’re all centralized and focused on secu- rity and teaching it and bringing that forward to the next generation.” When college ocials conduct sur- veys for potential new degrees, they request community input, including from surrounding school districts, Schumann said. Part of the infor- mation-gathering process includes looking at what high schools oer as career and technical education credits. Like the college’s established pro- grams, future baccalaureate degrees at Collin College will focus on work- force experience, a quality ocials attribute to the success of their curriculum. “[Degrees are] more based on applied type of knowledge rather than theoretical knowledge,” John- son said. “[Students] come out with the level of hands-on experience that potentially other places may not be able to oer.” William C. Wadsack contributed to this report.
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