Students beginning their engineering studies at Worcester State University soon have a guaranteed route to continue them a few miles across the city at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
The two universities are launching a new academic partnership that guarantees admission to WPI for Worcester State students who successfully complete a new pre-engineering curriculum, according to an announcement from Worcester State.
The program, which Worcester State plans to introduce this fall, creates the first academic partnership of its kind between the two Worcester institutions. Leaders from both universities are scheduled to formally sign the agreement Tuesday, Aug. 18.
The arrangement offers students another entry point into engineering while connecting a public state university with a private university known for its science and engineering programs. Worcester State faculty in the university’s School of Science, Technology and Health developed the new pre-engineering curriculum.
Under the agreement, students who successfully complete that curriculum will be guaranteed transfer admission to WPI. The announcement did not specify how many semesters students would spend at each institution, which WPI engineering programs would be available through the pathway or whether additional academic requirements would apply after transfer.
Those details could become clearer as the universities formally roll out the partnership.
The agreement also adds another local connection between higher education and workforce development in a city with a sizable concentration of colleges and universities and employers in technology, advanced manufacturing, health care and the life sciences.
Worcester State described the partnership in its announcement as an effort to create new pathways to graduation for engineering students while strengthening Worcester’s role as a center for higher education and workforce development.
Worcester State President Barry Maloney and WPI President Grace J. Wang are expected to sign the agreement during Tuesday’s ceremony. Linda Larrivee, dean of Worcester State’s School of Science, Technology and Health, and Arne Gericke, WPI’s dean of undergraduate studies, are also scheduled to participate.
The signing is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday in the President’s Conference Room at Worcester State, 486 Chandler St.
