University of Wisconsin Colleges


The University of Wisconsin Colleges was a unit of the University of Wisconsin System composed of 13 local two-year campuses and one online campus, University of Wisconsin Colleges Online. These campuses offered a liberal arts, transfer-parallel curriculum. The Colleges as a functional unit was dissolved as of June 30, 2018. The physical campuses are now affiliated with some of the four-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin System.

Campuses

The campuses are:
University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire:
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay:
University of Wisconsin–Platteville:
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee:
University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh:
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point:
University of Wisconsin–Whitewater:
An Associate degree can be earned at any of the campuses, including the online campus. Six of the campuses now offer a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences degree. The UW Colleges is also frequently used as a stepping stone in order to transfer to another institution in the University of Wisconsin System. This is facilitated by the "Guaranteed Transfer Program" whereby a student is guaranteed admission as a junior to another institution if certain requirements are met.

History

In 1940, the University of Wisconsin-Extension began operating freshman-sophomore centers across the state. After World War II, the UW Board of Regents encouraged counties and municipalities to donate land for this purpose, mainly to serve the influx of students enrolling after the war. After the 1971 merger of the University of Wisconsin System with the Wisconsin State Universities System to form the present-day UW System, the freshman-sophomore centers became a separate institution of the newly created system known as the University of Wisconsin Centers. The centers became known as University of Wisconsin Colleges in 1997.
In 2005, the Board of Regents partially reunited UW Colleges with UW-Extension. Although the two units share a single administration, they have separate provosts and retain separate identities.
The chancellor of both UW Colleges and UW-Extension is Cathy Sandeen.

Restructuring

On November 9, 2017, the UW Board of Regents voted to proceed with a proposal that would merge the physical University of Wisconsin Colleges campuses with seven of the four-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin System.