QUINCY – The city’s municipally run community college will soon begin granting four-year bachelor’s degrees for the first time.
The move to add a bachelor’s degree in business management to the two-year college’s offerings is part of an effort to help stabilize the school, which has seen declining enrollment and financial difficulties.
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“This is unquestionably a watershed moment in the history of Quincy College,” said Quincy College President Richard DeCristofaro in a statement. “Nothing is more important than strengthening our commitment to the ideals of access and affordability, and the unique opportunity to offer students a baccalaureate degree program truly sets us apart among the state’s two-year institutions.”
Because Quincy College is independent of the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges, it can offer four-year degrees while other community colleges can’t.
The program will be offered both in person and online.
College officials have been working to offer a four-year degree for about a decade. The school received approval this year from the state Department of Higher Education and the New England Commission of Higher Education – a regional accreditation institution – to offer the degree.
Enrollment for third-year classes in business management, the college’s most popular subject, will begin in January. Quincy College officials hope to attract students from across the state who are looking for an affordable business management degree.
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“I look forward to an exciting new level of engagement with our business management students and to providing them with more direct, guided pathways to achieve their educational goals,” Servet Yatin, the college’s provost, said in a statement.
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Joe Difazio can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @jldifazio.
