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Coastline Community College Partners with Penn State World Campus for Online Psychology Degrees

• By Leila Meyer
• 02/06/14

California's Coastline Community College is giving its students the option of completing a bachelor's degree in psychology through Penn State's online campus, World Campus, thanks to a new partnership between the two institutions.

Students who earn a two-year associate's degree from Coastline in Fountain Valley, CA can now transition to Penn State World Campus to earn a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree in psychology online. According to Penn State, Coastline students "will receive a waiver of the application fee, in-state tuition, pre-admission advising, a transfer credits roadmap, enhanced student services and a four-year tuition freeze," as well as access to Penn State faculty, courses, libraries and career services.

Penn State World Campus offers more than 100 undergraduate, graduate and professional education programs, and many of the online instructors also teach on campus at Penn State. According to a prepared statement from Christopher P. Long, associate dean for graduate and undergraduate education at Penn State’s College of the Liberal Arts, this partnership will benefit Coastline students by allowing them to earn a bachelor's degree in psychology "without requiring them to uproot their work and and family lives."

Coastline has similar partnerships with the University of Illinois - Springfield for computer science degrees and the University of Massachusetts - Amherst for business administration degrees. The partnerships between Coastline and the universities are part of the Learning First Program, a collaborative partnership between Coastline Community College and various universities to help Coastline students to earn bachelor's degrees. The Learning First Program is led by the League for Innovation in the Community College and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.