You’re never too old to learn
As the fall semester moves into the brilliant October colors of autumn, I can’t help but marvel at how beautiful our campus looks, especially one that is more than a century old!
Yes, William Woods is “old” in terms of years, as we begin our 152nd year as an institution, but what keeps us “young,” so to speak, is our relentless focus on the future and innovation. That was true back in the 1990’s, when The Woods established online degree programs before most all of our peer institutions did so. And that theme returned in a big way just a few days ago, when we announced the creation of William Woods Global, a significant increase in our online offerings with a special emphasis on adult learners.
Just as WWU will always be ready to learn and grow as an institution despite our voluminous history, we know that adults are increasingly clamoring to get more education, even as they have advanced well into their professional careers. And with higher education trends changing, perhaps helped along by the near universal experience of learning online that students across the board had during the pandemic, there has never been a better time to make online learning more accessible. Hence William Woods Global.
William Woods Global will mark a major increase in our online offerings, expanding academic opportunities for adult learners around the nation and even the world. Utilizing the same undergraduate curriculum we already have in place, this new initiative will leverage our success in traditional undergraduate degree offerings into the online realm, while building on our highly successful online graduate degree programs. Those online graduate degree programs, particularly in fields like Education and Business, have produced graduates who are assets to their local communities and economies for decades. William Woods Global will combine that online expertise with our strong existing undergraduate curriculum, with adult learners benefitting.
But also potentially benefitting will be our physical campus and generations of future students. While the impact of William Woods Global on our present-day campus at WWU will be minimal, what it could do for the entire institution in the long-term is especially exciting. The major increase that we are anticipating in the number of online students enrolled has the potential to significantly expand our capacity, which would in turn allow us to make additional investments in our University. With this increased revenue, the possibilities of how we can grow William Woods University in the future would be, quite frankly, limitless.
As legendary basketball coach John Wooden once said, “it’s what you learn after you know it all that really counts.” We know that there are countless adult learners out there who are eager to continue learning, even as they move into middle age, and we are excited to appeal to them through William Woods Global. And we are always eager ourselves, even after 152 years of existence, to consider whatever new ideas that help us provide a quality higher education experience to all students, traditional or online, here at The Woods.
Because after all, you’re never too old to learn.
Jeremy Moreland, Ph.D.
President
William Woods University