County College and Tarleton State University celebrated a 25-year partnership with the opening of shared space in downtown Fort Worth on Dec. 11.

Following improvements to TCC’s Trinity River West Fork Building, Tarleton is providing upper-level classes on the fifth floor, continuing a long-standing commitment by both schools to provide an affordable, innovative and accessible education for students who want more than an associate degree. Tarleton invested $2 million toward the upgrades, the university said in a news release.

“We greatly value our relationship with Tarleton and believe this new milestone in our partnership will bring Tarrant County residents greater opportunities to fulfill their academic dreams,” said TCC Chancellor Eugene Giovannini, Ed.D.

Located in the Richard C. Schaffer Building on Enderly Place since the 1990s and the Hickman Building on Camp Bowie Boulevard for 10 years, Tarleton moved into the first building of its planned campus in southwest Fort Worth this summer. Tarleton started with eight students on West Myrtle Street in 1978 and now serves close to 2,000 students in Fort Worth.

Currently, Tarleton is using the shared space at TCC’s Trinity River Campus to offer undergraduate degree completion programs through its College of Health Sciences and Human Services, including a bachelor’s in social work and the registered nurse to bachelor’s in nursing.

Accredited by the Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education, the RN to BSN enables registered nurses with a two-year associate degree and current state license to take their careers to the next level.

“Four-year and graduate degrees provide additional opportunities for students to fill the highly-skilled, high-demand professions that now make up a greater share of our North Texas labor market,” said Tarleton President James Hurley.

“Working with TCC, we offer specific, major-related transfer pathways that make it more convenient for students to complete their undergraduate degree in programs offered at our location in the Fort Worth Medical District as well as our new, permanent Fort Worth campus along Chisholm Trail Parkway.”

Last year, 20 percent of Tarleton’s transfer students came from TCC, making it one of the university’s top academic partners, a partnership that includes dual admission, transfer pathways, a financial aid consortium, and use of space at Tarleton’s locations in Fort Worth, the university news release said.

Tarleton, founding member of The Texas A&M University System, offers degree programs to more than 13,000 students at Stephenville, Fort Worth, Waco, Midlothian, RELLIS Academic Alliance in Bryan, and online.

Tarrant County College serves more than 100,000 students each year and is one of the 20 largest higher education institutions in the United States. The college, established in 1965, has six campuses throughout Tarrant County, including TCC Connect that provides flexibility with e-Learning and Weekend College.

TCC also assists employers in training their workforces with its TCC Opportunity Center.

– FWBP Staff

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR