NC State has announced that it will be joining a national network of universities to improve access to college, with the goal of increasing the number of degrees awarded by 2025.

Over 130 schools are involved in the initiative, known as Powered by Publics: Scaling Student Successes, which is run by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).

The schools involved will create a series of policies and reforms available to the network. Policies are intended to be usable by any institution, even those with limited resources. Participating universities will work in groups known as “clusters” to implement these policies and measure success.

One of the 16 clusters will focus on improved data collection systems to monitor student progress. Another cluster will work on bringing students greater education on financial literacy. A third will bring career advising opportunities to students early to improve readiness to join the workforce.

APLU has established a timeline of five phases to complete the project. Organizing clusters will occur throughout 2018. Assessing current capabilities and beginning work will occur in 2019. 2019-20 will see improvement in policies. Communicating results will occur from 2020-22, and finally, evaluating successes and planning for the future will happen in 2022.

NC State already has policies intended to help rural, low-income and other underrepresented groups, such as existing financial aid programs, Summer START, mentoring programs and several more.