Winthrop University - Bachelor of Professional Studies (B.P.S) CBE

[karehiro]

Winthrop University is now offering an online Bachelor's completion program in Professional Studies: https://online.winthrop.edu/programs/bps...al-studies

Need a minimum of 30 credits in order to transfer, and you can transfer up to 75% of eligible credits (it seems that CLEP credits are capped at 30 with no mention of other alt credits). Credit of prior learning can give 15 credits.

The self-paced curriculum is delivered in a 14-week subscription model with flat-rate pricing; less than 12 credits (part-time) is $1,750, and 12 or more credits (full-time) costs $3,500 per subscription period. No limit to the amount of classes you can take full-time, however any unfinished classes will be rolled over to the next period. Each course is separated into 6 competencies (similar to modules) that you complete in whatever order and whatever speed that you want to.

The online B.P.S. offers 4 concentrations, one which needs to be selected: 
Community and Health Services
Health Informatics
Organizational Leadership
Organizational Operations

B.P.S. curriculum: https://online.winthrop.edu/programs/bps...curriculum

This is Winthrop University's first offering of a CBE program as part of their "Elevate" program, and they state in their FAQ that more programs will be available in the future: https://www.winthrop.edu/elevate/

Winthrop University is a public university based in Rock Hill, South Carolina and has been recognized as top-rated within that state. The school is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

[Jonathan Whatley]

Great find!

At the bottom of the BPS degree landing page:

Risepoint maintains this website on behalf of Winthrop University. Winthrop University maintains responsibility for curriculum, teaching, admissions, tuition, financial aid, accreditation, and all other academic- and instruction-related functions and decisions. Learn more about Risepoint.

Risepoint is the company formed by the merger of Academic Partnerships and Wiley University Services. Academic Partnerships was an Online Program Management (OPM) company formerly involved with UMPI YourPace. The former third-party enrollment counselors widely reported to offer unreliable advice to prospective UMPI students were from Academic Partnerships. In spite of this, UMPI YourPace certainly succeeded. May Winthrop Elevate succeed too!

[bjcheung77]

Hmm, I couldn't find anything in regards to alternative credits, such as ACE/NCCRS... I guess they don't accept these unless it's for active duty (military). Interesting option, hopefully they'll allow a max transfer similar to UMPI's YourPace or UMASS Global MyPath, etc...

[karehiro]

Elevate is still in its very early phases so the details of everything are still being worked out but here's the response I received from the Communications Coordinator from Winthrop after asking about its future programs:

Currently the only program that we offer in the CBE format is the Bachelor of Professional Studies, but we do have plans to offer other programs in the future. While nothing is set in stone yet, there are discussions of hosting at least one program from our College of Business and Technology. This program will likely relate to cyber security, but again this is still in the planning phase so nothing is concrete yet. We are eventually planning to branch to other bachelor’s programs and some master’s programs, as well.
 
I cannot give you a timeline for these programs now, but we should be announcing them via social media and press releases as they are decided on. Feel free to follow Winthrop Elevate on Instagram or follow Winthrop University on any platform to get those updates when they come.

[SophiaPrincess]

I know Wnthrop's CBE BPS is new but I would caution anyone considering their program to reconsider. I have sent two polite emails to the Elevate Director Allison Brinkley inquiring on behalf of my younger brother with no reply after my brother sent his transcript via Credly several weeks ago with no response. I attended the video chat presentation last Thursday evening and it was misleading.

For example, they emphasize that you can transfer up to 90 credit hours. Numerous webpages at Winthrop suggest you only need 6 courses in your concentration plus transfer credit to graduate. What they hide is the 6 required courses for all BPS degrees on top of the 6 courses in your concentration plus 3 more courses in what they classify as Core A. A total of 15 required courses. Many will say 15 required courses sounds fine until you examine the courses. I looked at Organizational Leadership for my brother. Most of the required courses are completely unrelated to Organizational Leadership and so unusual that it would be impossible to find a similar course to transfer. Practically speaking, you can transfer no more than 75 credit hours.

In addition, many of their courses appear designed solely to promote their political worldview. That would be disappointing in a political science class but absolutely abhorrent in classes that have no political nexus.