The U.S. Department of Education has announced the initial grants in its First in the World program designed to increase college access for more Americans or to reduce costs. More than 500 applications for grants were submitted. For consideration, colleges and universities had to submit a program that addressed at least one of these goals:
1. Increasing college access and completion.
2. Enhancing community college transfer rates.
3. Increasing enrollment and completion rates in STEM fields.
4. Reducing the time to degree completion.
The Department of Education selected 24 programs and is providing $75 million in funding. Among the institutions awarded grants are two women’s colleges: Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, and Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.
Bay Path University received $3.5 million in funding for its new online American Women’s College, which is headquartered in Springfield. Specifically, the money will be used for curriculum develop for the college’s Social Online Universal Learning, or SOUL project.
Bryn Mawr College received a $1.65 million grant for programs to improve students’ mathematics skills and to increase degree completions in STEM fields.