The agreement was announced at the Georgia Cyber Center, where both AU and Augusta Tech have cyber programs. The new articulation agreement would allow students to transfer and “literally stay in the same building (but) move up a few floors,” said Dr. Jermaine Whirl, Augusta Tech’s president. The building is the only one in Georgia with a technical college and a University System of Georgia school co-located in it, said AU President Brooks Keel.
Some students already earned the two-year associate degree in cyber or IT at Augusta Tech and then went on to a bachelor’s degree at AU, with some transfer of credits, said Tammy O’Brien, dean of the School of Cyber and Digital Media at Augusta Tech. This formal arrangement allows Augusta Tech students to come to AU and take a “challenge exam,” potentially earning full credit for their coursework, said Dr. Alexander Schwarzmann, dean of the AU School of Computer and Cyber Sciences.
The curriculums are already pretty similar, O’Brien said.
“There’s a substantial overlap” between the programs, Schwarmann agreed.
Students could pursue a more advanced degree and further their careers once they enter the field, O’Brien said.
“The opportunities are endless,” she said.
It would also allow more nontraditional students at Augusta Tech an easier path to AU, where they are often more successful than those coming right out of high school, Schwarzmann said.
“They’re more goal-oriented,” he said. “They know what they want.”
The cyber agreement could be just the first for the schools, Keels aid.
“We see this as a stimulus for a whole lot more,” he said.
Augusta Tech is looking at potential agreements with many of the schools at AU, Whirl said. It also opens the opportunity for a student to stay in Augusta from high school to a doctoral degree at AU, Schwarzmann said.
But it goes beyond that, to students in elementary, middle and high schools in Augusta and in Columbia County who could see a pipeline in cyber that would lead them through the schools and into careers, Whirl said.
“It’s really about keeping our talent local,” he said. “If we do this well, we’ll have the workforce we need for the next decade.”
©2021 The Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Ga.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
