The University of Maryland University College (UMUC) is an American public university located in Adelphi in Prince George's County, Maryland in the United States. UMUC offers classes and programs on campus in its Academic Center in Largo, and at satellite campuses across the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, throughout Maryland, as well as in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
UMUC serves over 90,000 students worldwide and is one of the largest distance learning institutions in the world. UMUC is open to all applicants with a 100 percent acceptance rate for undergraduate programs. The university offers 120 academic programs in instructor-led and online classes, including bachelor, masters, and doctoral degrees as well as undergraduate and graduate certificates. UMUC is a member of the University System of Maryland, which includes eleven separate public universities in Maryland.
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History
UMUC is an outgrowth of the evening program for adults at the University of Maryland that began in the 1920s. In 1947, the College of Special and Continuation Studies (CSCS) was established. In 1959, The CSCS became the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). In 1970, UMUC became an independent institution, and it became a member of the University System of Maryland in 1988.
UMUC formerly had an international campus in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany (near Stuttgart) until 2001. It also ran a 2-year residential campus in Munich, Germany from 1950 to 1992, which then moved to Augsburg, Germany from 1993 to 1994, and then to Mannheim, Germany in 1995 until it finally closed in 2005. The residential campus offered a two-year associate degree and mainly served high school graduate children of U.S. military and government personnel stationed in Europe.
UMUC offers courses on over 130 military installations at locations throughout Europe and the Middle East, as well as in Asia. In 2004, UMUC shared the ICDE Prize of Excellence from the International Council for Open and Distance Education. In FY 2007, UMUC offered onsite classes in 22 countries throughout the world, enrolling 16,908 and 21,554 individual students, respectively, through its Asia and Europe divisions, including the Middle East.
University name
UMUC is a college in the traditional American sense of the word, albeit one associated with a university--hence, "University College." The "University of Maryland" prefix indicates the historical entity to which the college belonged originally. In the university's name, "University College" represents "the specialized concentration on professional development," while "University of Maryland" represents the affiliation of the university with the University System of Maryland. To American ears, the words "university" and "college" may sound synonymous, and "University College" would be redundant in its name. Among the collegiate universities of Europe, however, the practice of giving one college in the university the name "University College" is not uncommon. In England, for example, one of the 39 colleges of the University of Oxford is called University College, Oxford as well as University College London (UCL), part of the University of London.
When UMUC first opened in 1947, the school was named College of Special and Continuation Studies to distinguish it as an institution independent from the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1953, Raymond Ehrensberger, chancellor of the institution at that time, wanted to change the name to something more meaningful and less cumbersome for people to say and remember. Early suggestions for the name included College of General Studies, College of Adult Education and University College.
In 1959, Chancellor Ehrensberger persuaded the University System of Maryland's Board of Regents to change the name to University of Maryland University College. The name "University College" was adopted from the British university system to depict an educational institution offering "courses and programs from all academic departments outside the university's walls and normal class times." Therefore, UMUC is not a division of the University of Maryland, College Park, but rather a separate institution within the University System of Maryland.
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Academic and degree programs
UMUC is one of the largest providers of distance education in the United States. Courses are delivered in traditional classroom settings, as well as online. Even before the advent of online education by way of the World Wide Web, UMUC was a distance education pioneer and offered distance learning using its WebTycho interface by way of dial-up access. UMUC later adopted the use of the Web for connectivity to its online classrooms, as well as using television and correspondence courses to deliver course content.
Colleges and schools
- Undergraduate School
- Graduate School
Undergraduate
The Undergraduate School offers 32 bachelor's degree programs and 48 undergraduate certificates, which are awarded in business management, computers/information technology, communications, criminal justice/legal studies, and social sciences. Undergraduate students can earn credit through classroom-based and online courses or through the Cooperative Education and Prior Learning programs. The Undergraduate program serves as a continuation of the Community Colleges of Maryland and elsewhere. The Cooperative Education and Prior Learning programs offer an escalated degree option for education and training completed in the workplace or military. This program provides general education credits that can be applied towards a degree at UMUC.
Graduate
The Graduate School offers 18 master's degree programs, 38 graduate certificates, and a Doctor of Management. Most graduate programs are available in both classroom and online formats. Several master's degrees are available in an accelerated Executive format.
Deployed Locations
UMUC offers face-to-face courses and support in Afghanistan and Djibouti, Africa. UMUC deploys both faculty members and staff members to bases throughout Afghanistan and at Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti to support military personnel on those bases. UMUC has accompanied military personnel in downrange locations since the Army gave them clearance in 2005.
Afghanistan
Currently, UMUC offers courses and services at the four main Army Education Centers, located in Bagram Air Field, Kabul (Camp Phoenix), Salerno and Kandahar. Bagram Air Field is the largest site in Afghanistan, with about 275 active enrollments each session, and up to twenty face-to-face courses. All four sites have collegiate professors and Field Representatives stationed on them to assist soldiers, airmen, Marines, and sailors with UMUC's programs and courses.
Field Representatives, commonly referred to as Field Reps, deploy with faculty members to help promote and facilitate UMUC's program at each site. Field Reps assist students with enrollment, tuition assistance, and textbook sales, as well as guidance and assistance with academic goals and careers. The Field Rep is also responsible for the local program, to include marketing and maintaining relationships with military personnel.
Faculty members assigned to a downrange location teach service members wherever they may be. Classroom space is limited in Afghanistan, and faculty members teach their classes anywhere they can, to include hangars, unit conference rooms, dining facilities, even chapels and picnic benches. Faculty members, known and referred to as instructors, also assist the Field Rep located where they are in assisting students and promoting classes and programs.
Djibouti
Classes are held at Camp Lemonnier on the Naval base in Djibouti City. Classes are taught by on site faculty members and can also be taught by military personnel who hold Master's or Doctoral degrees and have prior teaching experience. A full-time UMUC faculty member also serves as a counselor for students already enrolled in UMUC programs, and to those military members who would like to take classes. Most students at Lemonnier receive tuition assistance through military programs to support higher education for its members.
Campus and facilities
Headquarters/main campus
The headquarters for UMUC is located in Adelphi, Maryland near the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park. Until late 2000, the UMUC headquarters was listed in College Park, Maryland. In an attempt to establish its own identity as an independent university, UMUC changed its postal address to Adelphi, an unincorporated community that borders College Park. The address change with the U.S. Postal Service involved no physical move of people and facilities. The marketing decision to change its postal address was one of many undertaken by UMUC to distinguish the university as one of the largest distance-education centers, with over 90,000 students enrolled worldwide.
Academic buildings
- Academic Center at Largo
- Student & Faculty Services Center (SFSC) (Headquarters)
- College Park Marriott
UMUC purchased for $38 million its new headquarters building in Largo, Maryland, which was once the headquarters site for Hechinger and corporate offices of Raytheon. UMUC retrofitted its new headquarters to meet "green" building requirements for LEED certification. UMUC followed the same process as it did to achieve LEED certification in 2005 for its Inn & Conference Center, which became the first hotel complex in the United States to achieve certification as a green building.
UMUC began relocating its academic departments and offices to its new Academic Center at Largo in September 2009, and completed the process in 2010. UMUC began offering on campus classes at its new Academic Center in the Spring 2010 semester.
Satellite campuses
UMUC operates satellite campuses across the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, throughout Maryland, as well as in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area
In the greater Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area, daytime, evening and weekend classes are held at 21 locations, including holding many of its classes at the University of Maryland, College Park campus. The satellite campuses offer varying academic services, including advising, computing, and library facilities (extensive library services are available to distance education students via the University's Information and Library Services department).
UMUC operates a facility in Dorsey, Maryland adjacent to the Dorsey MARC Train Station. In partnership with Maryland community colleges and other University System of Maryland institutions, UMUC offers courses and degree programs at several higher education centers throughout the state. In conjunction with the College of Southern Maryland, it operates the Waldorf Center for Higher Education in Waldorf, Maryland. A consortium of universities led by Anne Arundel Community College, including UMUC, operates a higher education center adjacent to Arundel Mills mall in Hanover, Maryland. In addition, the University offers courses at the Universities at Shady Grove and University System of Maryland at Hagerstown, which are part of the University System of Maryland.
Global locations
In Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, UMUC offers courses on military bases for service members, contractors, Federal employees, and their families. In addition to distance learning via the Web, the university offers on-site, instructor-led classes at 130 overseas US military bases in 22 countries throughout the world. Overseas instruction is coordinated through its European Division, which covers USCENTCOM installations in the Middle East, and Asian Divisions. UMUC divisional headquarters are located in Kaiserslautern, Germany (following the closure of United States Army Garrison Heidelberg) and on Yokota Air Base, Tokyo, Japan, respectively.
Student profile
UMUC specializes in distance learning for adult, non-traditional students in Maryland, across the country, and around the world by operating satellite campuses and offering online instruction. The university educates 50,000 active-duty service members at over 130 military installations. In FY 2009, more than 30,000 Marylanders attended UMUC. The USM Board of Regents predicts UMUC's enrollment will increase 48% by 2018.
About three quarters of the undergraduate students attend part-time. Over ninety-two percent of UMUC students are employed full-time. The majority of undergraduate students are female. The median age of stateside undergraduate students is 31. Almost two-thirds of the graduate MBA students are married, half are female, and over a third are minorities. Over a third of UMUC's stateside students were African-American, and this minority group earned over a third of the degrees awarded by the university.
Awards
UMUC was ranked #1 in The Military Times "Best for Vets: Colleges 2015" list of top online and nontraditional schools. Military Times "Best for Vets" is one of the most respected and comprehensive rankings for veterans who are considering higher education. The publication looked at U.S. Department of Education statistics on student success and academic quality, as well as areas such as university culture, student support, and academic policies in evaluating hundreds of schools. http://bestforvets.militarytimes.com/2015/colleges/online-nontraditional/
In 2011, UMUC received the Institution Award from the Council of College and Military Educators (CCME), a not-for-profit organization founded to promote, encourage and deliver quality education to servicemembers and their families in all branches of the U.S. armed services. The Institution Award is given to a college or university that supplies quality education programs to the armed services. CCME selected UMUC due to its dedication, leadership and numerous accomplishments in providing quality, voluntary off-duty education programs.
Notable alumni
Academia
Arts and entertainment
Business
Government and public policy
Literature
Sports
Notable students
Notable faculty
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