An Open Letter from Paul Pastorek

President of the University of Arizona Global Campus

August 1, 2022

Today, the University of Arizona Global Campus (UAGC or University) begins a new chapter to better serve our students. UAGC will bring in-house all strategic student services, including marketing and enrollment. To accomplish this, we terminated our contractual relationship with Zovio, our online program management (OPM) provider, effective July 31, 2022, through an asset purchase and sale agreement. During the past 18 months, UAGC has established a student-centered vision, mission, and purpose. By terminating the OPM agreement, yet bringing key personnel and systems into UAGC, we ensure that all personnel at UAGC are aligned toward a single purpose – the success of our students – and toward our mission to serve working adults and advance their social and economic mobility by offering a fair-priced, high-quality university degree. In addition, this termination will allow UAGC to focus all resources on our goal of improving retention and student outcomes.

When UAGC was established and affiliated with The University of Arizona in late 2020, it was clear from day one that UAGC would direct and have compliance oversight of all programs, policies, and procedures. Working closely with the UAGC Board of Trustees, we built a new leadership team to assume full control of the University, and we revised processes and procedures to further ensure compliance with state and federal regulations. We received encouragement and constructive oversight from our accreditor, the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC), to meet our obligations to serve our students with the highest level of quality throughout our existence and in accordance with our mission and purpose as an open access institution.

With UAGC students as our top priority, this transition away from Zovio operations will be 100 percent seamless for them. It has the full support of the UAGC Board of Directors and The University of Arizona, and we are deeply grateful for that.

As an institution, this new chapter reflects our belief that our mission demands that the governance and control of critical functions, in particular enrollment, marketing, student advising, and financial aid, rest exclusively with UAGC leadership. It is grounded in a conviction that outsourcing such functions is inherently at odds with our aspirations and desired outcomes. Placing all of our services under one roof, we believe, will increase efficiency, reduce costs, and is a necessary precondition to making good on our commitments to our students.

UAGC is well-positioned to provide adult learners with affordable college credentials that can better prepare them for careers in a rapidly evolving global economy. Innovation is and will remain at the core of our approach, and a promise to our students.

The transaction we are announcing today means UAGC is an integrated stand-alone, student- facing operation. This structure and responsibility will enable us to make investments that serve our students in the very best way. It will allow us to better achieve ambitious goals around retention, completion, and post-graduation support.

We believe our new path forward—and our affiliation with a public land-grant institution—will protect and foster the success of current and future students and provide the capacity and resources to drive both innovation and improved outcomes.

Sincerely,

Paul Pastorek
CEO and President, UAGC

 

 

Contact Information

Linda Robertson,
Director, University Communications
[email protected]

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