Subject: Academic Common Market Expands Graduate Degree Options for North Carolina Residents

[To about 30 newspaper contacts throughout North Carolina]

Press Release – September 2, 2005 – For immediate use

CHAPEL HILL -- Action by the 2005 General Assembly will support North Carolina’s continued participation in the Academic Common Market (ACM), a program of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) that allows its 16 member states to share academic degree programs that are not commonly available. Through this program, North Carolina residents may pay in-state tuition rates at a participating university in another SREB state while pursuing a master’s or doctoral degree program not available at one of the 16 University of North Carolina campuses. The ACM can also help current North Carolina students who have been paying out-of-state tuition to pursue such programs complete their degrees at in-state rates.

North Carolina reciprocates by granting access to residents of other SREB states who apply through their own states to pursue North Carolina graduate degree programs that are not commonly available elsewhere. Individual students aren’t the only ones to benefit from the ACM. Participating states also benefit from the reduced need to initiate new and expensive degree programs (requiring new faculty, buildings, laboratories, etc.) that are already available in other SREB states.

The 16 SREB states include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Roughly 200 universities in these states offer graduate degree programs through the ACM.

The UNC-ACM is administered by the UNC Office of the President. Its website (http://acm.northcarolina.edu) offers an online application for North Carolina residents to apply for ACM participation. Master’s and doctoral degree programs available to North Carolinians at in-state rates are not limited to the programs currently listed on the UNC-ACM website. If the program to which a student has been admitted is not available in North Carolina, the UNC-ACM will request access to the program through the SREB.

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Contact: Morris Dean, by way of e-mail or phone: 919-962-4597