Freshman year is guaranteed to be full of excitement, yet challenging for most college students.
Academic challenges. Being your own boss. Time management. Financial challenges. The list goes on.
To ease the transition from high school to college, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke has launched a University College.
A growing number of universities have introduced this initiative on campuses nationwide to support networks necessary for making sophomores out of first-year students.
The University College at UNCP will serve as the portal for all first-year and most transfer students to enter the university and begin exploring the curriculum and myriad of career paths being offered. The ultimate goal of the new concept is to improve retention rates which are on the rise.
The college is a comprehensive framework that integrates curricular, co-curricular, and advising programming in order to enhance their first-year experience, develop skills and habits that result in student success, and prepare them for sustained, advanced coursework in their major programs.
“The University College will serve as an academic umbrella providing support for all stakeholders from faculty to staff as they provide the support needed to enhance the academic lives of our students,” said Beth Holder, the new associate vice chancellor and dean of University College.
First-year students will be placed into meta-majors based on their chosen major, taught by University College-designated faculty. Meta-majors are collections of academic majors that have related courses and fit within a career field.
Originally published Oct. 12, 2018.