SALT LAKE CITY — Lovelock’s Gabrielle Switzer and Shelbey Badger earned a degree from Western Governors University (WGU).
The online, nonprofit university has graduated over 190,000 students from across the country since its inception in 1997.
Switzer, received a Bachelor of Arts, Special Education and Badger, received a Master of Arts in Teaching, English Education (secondary).
WGU has recognized 7,734 undergraduate and 5,254 graduate degree recipients who have completed their degrees since April 1.
Their areas of study include business, K-12 education, information technology, and health professions, including nursing.
The average time to graduation for those earning a bachelor’s degree was two years, three months, while the average time to degree for graduate programs was one year, five months.
The average age for those who graduated is 37 years old.
WGU pioneered competency-based education, which measures learning rather than time spent in class. Designed to meet the needs of working adults, students study and learn on their own schedules with individualized, one-to-one faculty support.
They complete courses as soon as they demonstrate that they have mastered the subject matter; allowing them to move quickly through material they already know so they can allocate time for what they still need to learn.
As a result, many WGU students are able to accelerate their studies, saving both time and money. This model has also served students especially well amid the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing them to continue their programs successfully.
