Arizona is active in all three WICHE Student Exchange Programs: the Western Undergraduate Exchange, the Professional Student Exchange Program, and the Western Regional Graduate Program. This year Arizona’s students and families saved over $12.2 million. Arizona saved money, too, through not having to establish and maintain costly programs in a number of areas, including some in healthcare.

Western Undergraduate Exchange. Arizona students have enrolled in undergraduate programs beyond Arizona’s borders through the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) since 1998, saving on 7,922 annual tuition bills. This year, 1,045 students from Arizona are enrolled in out-of-state programs at reduced rates (150 percent of resident tuition), saving more than $8 million in tuition and fees – the average student savings amounted to $7,674. In the last dozen years, students have saved over $48 million.

Arizona benefits from WUE in another way: by receiving students from out of state. Arizona’s institutions can choose how many out-of-state slots to offer and in which areas, allowing them to make the best use of their resources by accepting students in underenrolled programs. There’s a workforce benefit for the state, too, as students often stay in Arizona after graduating. This year Arizona received 4,321 students through WUE.

Professional Student Exchange Program. Arizona has sent some 2,300 students to professional programs through the Professional Student Exchange Program (PSEP), with students studying in a host of critical fields, including dentistry, occupational therapy, optometry, physician assistant, and veterinary medicine. Historically, 76 percent of PSEP students return to Arizona to pursue their professional careers.

Western Regional Graduate Program. Arizona’s postgraduates also participate in graduate programs through the Western Regional Graduate Program (WRGP), which offers access to over 220 high-quality, distinctive programs (“distinctive” meaning that they’re offered at only four or fewer institutions in the WICHE region) at 45 institutions in all WICHE states. WRGP programs run the gamut, but emerging social, environmental, and resource-management fields are particular strengths, as are innovative interdisciplinary programs. This year Arizona sent 46 students to out-of-state institutions, while receiving 121.

Internet Course Exchange (ICE). The Arizona Universities Network is a member of WICHE’s newest exchange, ICE, is an alliance of member institutions and systems with a set of policies, procedures, and support systems for sharing distance-delivered courses among two- and four-year institutions in the 15-state WICHE region.

WICHE’s Added Value

Arizona gains added value from WICHE’s programs in policy, workforce development, technology, mental health, and other areas.

Policy & Workforce Development. Arizona has been an active participant in projects to support better-informed decision making at the state level. WICHE initiatives have been sponsored by the Ford Foundation, Lumina Foundation for Education, the U.S. Department of Education, and others. In addition, teams of policymakers and educational leaders from Arizona participate each year
in regional policy forums and meetings hosted by WICHE.

Arizona participated in a Gates-funded meeting in 2008 that brought together the stewards of the data systems in 14 WICHE states for discussions around linking data internally and with other states. A central topic was how to address the challenges to data sharing presented by Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. State representatives also attended the Western Summit on Workforce Certification and Higher Education for policymakers in the West, held in response to the national demand for more highly skilled workers in a host of fields, from healthcare to high tech. Participants explored how states might use a workforce certification system – which would allow business and higher education to communicate with a common language about workforce demand and supply – to improve their ability to prepare individuals for productive careers and enhance the health of their economies.

WICHE’s Lumina-funded Getting What You Pay For: Understanding Higher Education Appropriations, Tuition, and Financial Aid project promoted informed decision making and the alignment of higher education appropriations, tuition, and financial aid policy by state legislators, to improve student access and success. WICHE sent copies of the project’s eight policy briefs to all
members of the Arizona Legislature.

Arizona also participated in another Lumina project, Best Practices in Statewide Articulation and Transfer Systems, which seeks to develop a deeper understanding of how states coordinate their articulation and transfer programs for students who move from two-year to four-year institutions, focusing strategies that increase access to and success in higher education.

Additionally, Arizona State University and the Arizona Board of Regents belong to the Western Academic Leadership Forum, whose members address regional higher education issues and engage in cooperative resource sharing. A new WICHE initiative, the Western Alliance for Community College Academic Leaders, will bring academic leaders of community colleges and technical schools and systems together with state governing and coordinating boards associated with two-year institutions to exchange ideas and information, share resources and expertise, and collaborate on regional initiatives.

Technology. Several Arizona colleges and universities are active participants in the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies (WCET), a membership cooperative that accelerates the adoption of effective practices and policies to advance excellence in technology-enhanced teaching and learning in higher education. Institutional members have access to trusted information on emerging trends, policies and exemplars of successful adoption of learning technology innovation in practice. WCET membership provides unparalleled access to peers, colleagues, common interest groups, experts, and decision makers, who themselves are pushing effective adoption of educational technologies to improve access to quality educational programs. Specific resources available to Arizona institutional members include communications tools that enable them to stay informed of developments affecting technology-enabled teaching and learning, from dynamic listservs to communities of interest on student retention, student authentication, academic integrity, and e-learning management structures. WCET also keeps its members informed about key federal developments affecting e-learning providers such as new federal rules resulting from the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. Phoenix was the host city for WCET’s 20th annual conference in 2008, one of the country’s premier e-learning conferences, attracting 400 attendees from across the U.S., Canada, and other countries.

A number of Arizona colleges and universities have received recognition for cutting-edge uses of educational technology tools and practices to enhance teaching and learning through the WCET Outstanding Work (WOW) award. Rio Salado College, Arizona State University, Cochise College, University of Arizona, and the University of Phoenix have been recognized for their effective and
innovative uses of technology in education. Rio Salado College is a participant in the Transparency by Design project, a consumer education and accountability strategy benefiting adult students and the online higher education community.

Mental Health. A nucleus for researching mental health policy and a provider of technical assistance in such areas as service innovation, system reform, workforce development, and program evaluation, WICHE’s Mental Health Program is another well-used resource. Currently, the program is partnering with the Arizona Department of Health Services and the Arizona State Hospital to conduct a review and analysis of the behavioral intervention training and capacity of the security staff and the hospital unit staff and develop recommendations for improvement.

Other Initiatives. Arizona was chosen to participate in the WICHE-managed State Scholars Initiative (SSI), a national business/education partnership effort working to increase the number of students who take a rigorous curriculum in high school; its program was funded by a grant of $300,000 from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education. In April 2008 Arizona sent a team to the National Summit on Rigor and Relevance in Boston, sponsored by SSI.

Another initiative, the Master Property Program (MPP), helps institutions in the West reduce their insurance premiums and improve their coverage. Created by the Midwestern Higher Education Compact in 1994 and expanded to the WICHE region in 2004, the MPP includes 48 member institutions with total insured values of $73.1 billion. It has generated more than $59.1 million in savings for the participating institutions while expanding their insurance coverage.

Arizona & WICHE’s Leadership

The WICHE Commission, with three commissioners from each member state, molds the organization’s mission and sets its priorities. Arizona’s commissioners are: Thomas Anderes, president, Arizona Board of Regents, Phoenix; Leah Bornstein, president of Coconino College, Flagstaff; and Chris Bustamante, president of Rio Salado University, Tempe.

WICHE also seeks assistance and advice from policymakers, educators, administrators and legislators. WICHE’s Legislative Advisory Committee (LAC), composed of legislator-members from each state – including Arizona Sen. Bob Burns, Phoenix, and Rep. David Schapira, Tempe – has been crucial in this regard. The LAC works to keep the commission’s Executive Committee and staff current on significant legislative issues related to higher education, provides input on WICHE initiatives, and advises staff on a host of issues. WICHE staff also serves the LAC, by informing its members about emerging policy issues in the West.