Finalizations are now taking place (starting October 2018) to complete the legal separation of BYU-Pathway Worldwide from BYU-Idaho. This separation is the result of an ongoing effort to accommodate the increasing growth in online enrollments and address the distinctive needs of online students.
With the separation, BYU-Pathway Worldwide will be responsible for EnglishConnect and PathwayConnect (non-matriculated courses and students) and their associated gatherings. It will contract with BYU-Idaho to provide subject matter expertise in the courses, course design, and online delivery for these programs.
In turn, BYU-Idaho will contract with BYU-Pathway Worldwide to act as the principle point of access for students seeking BYU-Idaho online certificates and degrees by creating and managing an online portal for student services.
Additional changes will be taking place over the next several semesters as the Pathway Curriculum Team works to conduct market research to determine which certificates and degrees will best meet the needs of online degree students around the world.
Under the new model, all matriculated online degree programs will be accredited through BYU-Idaho. Students in these programs are BYU-Idaho students and as of April 2019 will be able to earn a limited number of BYU-Idaho degrees, as seen in the infographic on page three.
The CES Curriculum Council will review each online program looking for the following criteria before the degrees will be offered through the BYU-Pathway Worldwide portal to online students:
1) Employability
2) High Student Demand
3) Consistent Formats
4) BYU-Idaho Online Standards
5) Job Skills
6) Digital Course Material
Online BYU-Pathway Worldwide students will begin with PathwayConnect or EnglishConnect for three semesters. The third semester curriculum will also include a gateway certificate course. Tuition, registration, and other services are handled by BYU-Pathway Worldwide during this time, while course content and instructors will be provided by BYU-Idaho.
PathwayConnect students with a 3.0 GPA or higher will be admitted as BYU-Idaho students. Once admitted, online curriculum and faculty, online course content, certificates, programs, tuition, scholarships, and financial aid will be provided by BYU-Idaho, just as it is for campus students. However, BYU-Idaho will contract with BYU-Pathway Worldwide to provide services such as admission, registration, advising, persistence coaching, etc. designed specifically to meet the needs of an online student from a variety of backgrounds and family/economical situations.
This new separation grants greater access to high-quality education as the Church seeks to make education more accessible and affordable to its members throughout the world.