Newscap April 2013

Psych Internship Program Accredited. The Alaska Psychology Internship Consortium, developed by WICHE’s Mental Health Program, has received accreditation from the American Psychological Association, considered the gold standard in psychology training. WICHE began developing this program in 2008 to fill a critical unmet need for in-state internships for psychology Ph.D. students. An internship is required to earn a doctoral degree in psychology, but prior to the program’s creation, students at the University of Alaska Anchorage and University of Alaska Fairbanks didn’t have any in-state options. The program – which had its first class in 2010 – has allowed nearly all psychology doctoral students from these institutions to complete their training in Alaska. It has graduated 12 psychologists, and 10 have stayed in Alaska to begin their careers. Thanks to a new grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, the program will be able to expand the number of training slots from seven to 10 per year. “This is the first psychology internship program in the nation to be developed within a state-funded technical assistance model,” says Tamara DeHay, senior project director in the Mental Health Program. “The workforce impact in Alaska is apparent, as is the return on investment for the state. This model is worth replicating, especially in states with behavioral health workforce shortages.”
 

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The Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE), which allows WICHE member students to enroll in participating, out-of-state two- and four-year public institutions at 150 percent of resident tuition, has added eight new programs in the last year: Northland Pioneer College (AZ) ; the University of California, Merced; California State University, San Marcos; California State University, Northridge; Colorado Mountain College; the University of Hawai‘i Maui College; the University of Hawai‘i West Oahu; and Great Falls College (MT). 

The Western Regional Graduate Program (WRGP) allows master’s, graduate certificate, and doctoral students who are residents of the 15 participating states and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to enroll in 320 high-quality programs at 56 participating institutions on a resident tuition basis. WRGP recently added 45 new programs, including several in psychology and counseling (at Arizona State University’s West campus, University of Colorado–Colorado Springs, University of Colorado–Denver, and University of Northern Colorado); two in speech language pathology (Utah State University and University of Washington), and a doctorate of nursing practice (University of Wyoming). In addition, four doctoral programs at the University of California, San Francisco, new to WRGP, have been added: bioengineering (a joint program with UC Berkeley); biological and medical informatics; chemistry and chemical biology; and pharmaceutical sciences and pharmacogenomics. All four programs are funded by the National Institutes of Health, and most doctoral students are fully supported. WRGP now includes more than 100 healthcare-related programs, including those in graduate nursing, public health, mental health and psychology, audiology and speech pathology, biomedical informatics, and a doctorate in occupational therapy.

WRGP’s most recent nominations cycle also attracted many education-related programs, including graduate certificates in online teaching and learning (New Mexico State University) and education technology (Northern Arizona University). Arizona State University’s Tempe campus is offering a professional sciences master’s in solar energy engineering and commercialization through WRGP; and Humboldt State University is offering a master’s in environmental systems.

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WICHE's new Policy Insights report, “Demography as Destiny: Policy Considerations in Enrollment Management,” is an analysis of data from the 8th edition of Knocking at the College Door: Projections of High School Graduates, released in December, which showed that the population of U.S. high school graduates is entering a period of modest decline and that the pool of future college students is rapidly grow­ing more racially and ethnically diverse. Another Policy Insights paper, “Tuition and Fees in the West, 2012-13,” analyzes the latest data from WICHE’s annual survey, “Tuition and Fees in Public Higher Education in the West”.

A new Western Policy Exchanges, “After the Funding Is Through: CACG Program Sustainability,” provides recommendations for states to consider to ensure that the work they’ve accomplished with federal College Access Challenge Grant funding continues. Look for these three publications on the WICHE Policy pages soon.

“Benchmarks: WICHE Region 2012” presents information on the West’s progress in improving access to, success in, and financing of higher education. The information, including state-by-state data, is updated annually to monitor changes over time.

A new survey of nearly 200 colleges, “What Are States Doing (or not Doing) about State Authorization – Revisited”,  conducted by WCET, UPCEA and Sloan-C, found that a growing number of colleges have obtained the necessary approvals in states in which they serve distance students, but many have a long way to go. What’s more, an increasing number of institutions no longer accept students from some states. “Two-thirds of responding colleges sought authorization in at least one state," according to Russell Poulin, deputy director of WCET – about double the rate seen in a 2011 survey. “But only 15 percent responded that they have all the approvals they need.”

Another new WCET publication, “A Simple Guide to Navigating the MOOC Muddle,” by Luke Dowden and Myk Garn, and part of WCET’s new Talking Points series, is designed to be conversation starter for institutional leaders who are considering whether to develop and offer a MOOC.

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