The CBE War: UMPI vs. WGU vs. South College — Which University Is Winning the Race for Competency-Based Education?

Battle for the Future of Online College

A battle is currently taking place in American higher education.

Traditionally, acquiring a college degree involved the following process: a student registered for courses, took classes for a certain period of weeks, obtained credit hours, and received a degree.

Competency-based education, or CBE, is challenging the traditional approach.

Rather than measuring the academic progress of students by time, CBE measures the demonstration of competencies and knowledge by students. Competent students may get ahead of others, while students who are encountering difficult materials may take additional time to study it.

Three universities are used as examples to show how different this revolution is: the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI), Western Governors University (WGU), and South College.

It is not the battle of the single victor. Each of the colleges targets different types of students. However, the competition becomes particularly interesting among working adults who compare flexible online education.

UMPI: The Challenger of the CBE Movement

UMPI uses the YourPace program in the battle for the future of online college.

According to UMPI's YourPace Student Handbook, students can make progress in CBE by demonstrating competencies and not only spending a required number of classroom hours. The YourPace courses consist of eight-week sessions. Additional coursework may be added during the session if a student is eligible to do so.

This creates a balance of the structure and accelerated progress.

Students have eight-week sessions to conduct coursework, but they may make faster progress if they demonstrate the required competencies.

The YourPace program is interesting due to the fact that UMPI is a public university and belongs to the University of Maine System.

Also, it involves the undergraduate and graduate programs, offering adult learners multiple ways to enter college depending on their previous education.

Transferring a lot of college credits, adult learners can take advantage of the YourPace program, reducing the number of courses they have to study.

Strengths of the UMPI Program

Short eight-week sessions, public university, possibility of transfers, and relatively easy CBE are the key competitive advantages of UMPI.

This program will be particularly useful for adult learners who have a considerable number of credits and want to obtain a bachelor's degree without going back to traditional classroom.

Graduate program makes UMPI not just a bachelor's-degree completion program.

WGU: The Heavyweight of CBE Battle

If UMPI is the challenger, then Western Governors University is the heavyweight of the comparison.

WGU was created in 1997, and it uses CBE as its educational approach. Unlike UMPI's eight-week sessions, WGU has six-month terms. Students pay fixed tuition for the term and complete multiple courses within it.

WGU says about its principle very simply: students learn the material, demonstrate mastery by assessments, and advance.

Thus, it creates the most recognizable accelerated approach in American online higher education.

Also, WGU begins degree terms on the first day of every month, providing the students considerable flexibility in choosing the starting date.

One of the biggest advantages is also the scale of WGU's programs. It has programs in business, technology, education, and health care fields. Some programs include the professional certification in the program, allowing obtaining both academic and industry credentials.

In addition, WGU students receive the program mentors, who give the assistance and monitor their progress throughout the entire degree program.

Strengths of the WGU Program

Scale of the program, variety of programs, mature CBE, six-month acceleration windows, flexible starting dates, and career-based education make WGU one of the best competitors in this case.

For students who want to complete multiple courses during six months, WGU is an extremely attractive choice.

However, there is a compromise in this approach.

Six months is a bigger commitment than an eight-week session. A person who makes accelerated progress may receive big benefits from WGU's term. For those who learn slowly, there will be no cost advantage.

CBE requires the preparation and discipline.

South College: Applying the CBE Approach to Doctoral Degree

Now let us consider the South College.

South College takes this competition to the next level because it uses CBE not only in undergraduate and graduate but also in doctoral programs.

South College offers competency-based programs including Doctor of Business Administration (DBA), Doctor of Education (EdD), as well as master's programs and post-doctoral certificates.

This changes the nature of the battle.

While UMPI and WGU offer many options for bachelor's and master's students, South College demonstrates how CBE approach can be implemented in professional education.

For experienced executives, administrators, educators, government professionals, or business leaders, it is a significant difference.

Professional may already have decades of experience and knowledge of leadership, management, organizational behavior, public administration, finance, or strategy.

The competency-based doctoral program allows such students to prove the advanced level of knowledge while they continue working professionally.

South College uses six-month instructional periods in its CBE programs. The published tuition information of South College lists the CBE tuition in $6,000 for six-month term of the covered programs. However, students have to check current tuition and fees with the university before applying.

Strengths of the South College Program

Variety of programs up to doctoral degree is the major competitive advantage of South College in the battle of three.

Possibility of studying DBA and EdD through CBE puts South College in a different category.

Therefore, its CBE programs will be particularly interesting to the professionals who want to continue their education after obtaining the bachelor's and master's degrees.

Three Universities and Three Approaches

Although all universities use the same approach, they cannot be compared equally.

UMPI offers a good combination of short sessions, affordability, possibility of transfers, and the status of the public university.

WGU offers one of the most developed ecosystems among three with six-month terms, many programs, monthly starting opportunities, mentors, and the approach built on CBE.

South College moves the competition to graduate and doctoral levels, providing the possibility to get such credentials as DBA and EdD through CBE.

This means that the question "which university is the best?" may be incorrect.

The right question is: which CBE model fits the needs of the student?

And the Winner Is...

There is no universal victor in this battle.

However, there can be victors in certain categories.

UMPI's YourPace should be considered seriously by those students who are looking for an affordable and flexible bachelor's-degree completion program.

WGU is a strong competitor of those students who need many established programs of CBE.

For professionals looking for the competency-based doctoral education, South College becomes particularly interesting.

The biggest victor of this competition may become the adult learner.

The competition forces universities to reconsider many issues related to the education, including the tuition, scheduling, transfer, academic delivery, and the speed of the progress.

Larger CBE Revolution

YourPace program and continued expansion of WGU and South Colleges demonstrate a bigger issue in higher education:

Should the students acquire degrees by spending a required number of weeks in the course or by demonstrating knowledge?

Traditional education will not disappear, of course. Some students can gain a lot from lectures, discussions, semesters, and communication with the professor and classmates.

However, there are millions of adult learners who have years and even decades of professional experience.

Military veteran can already know the basics of the leadership.

Manager can already know organizational behavior.

Accountant can already know financial statements.

Information technology professional can already know networking.

For such students, making everybody study at the same pace seems outdated.

UMPI, WGU, and South College believe that there is another approach.

They do not change academic requirements. They change the relationship between the time and knowledge.

And this is the most important point in the CBE war.

The main competition in this battle is not UMPI versus WGU versus South College.

It is the competition of the ideas about the higher education: time spent versus competencies demonstrated.

With the growing demands of the working adults to the flexible, affordable, and online education, this competition is just beginning.