Warren Wilson College is a tiny university tucked away near Asheville, N.C. But it’s a crucial part of a distinctive yet underappreciated segment of the higher-education marketplace: work colleges.
As I’ve written many times before, I am a proponent of variety and choice in education. Not all students want the same thing from postsecondary education. Some want a Great Books curriculum. Others want apprenticeships or quick-turnaround credentials that will lead directly to the workforce. We should embrace this diversity of credentials and institutions. Work colleges are one unique model that students can choose, but they represent only a tiny share of the higher-education market.
What makes these schools different from other postsecondary institutions is their strategic incorporation of employment into education. The Work College Consortium explains:
Each school is unique and operates the work program in a slightly different fashion. However, “work-learning-service” is a central component of each work college. Student work, coupled with robust academics and a spirit of service, is the common denominator.
There are currently 10 federally recognized work colleges in the U.S. (as well as one independent two-year work college). The Work College Consortium was formed in 1995 to encourage collaboration between the institutions.
In order to qualify for federal recognition, colleges must meet certain criteria, although these are not onerous. Eligible institutions must:
- Be a public or private nonprofit, four-year, degree-granting institution with a commitment to community service [Author’s note: All current work colleges are private];
- Have operated a comprehensive work-learning-service program for at least two years;
- Require resident students, including at least one-half of all students who are enrolled on a full-time basis, to participate in a comprehensive work-learning-service program for at least five hours each week, or at least 80 hours during each period of enrollment (with a few exceptions);
- Provide students participating in the comprehensive work-learning-service program with the opportunity to contribute to their education and to the welfare of the community as a whole.
Within that framework, the schools vary widely. Most of the schools are rural. But Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Tex., calls itself “the first urban work college.” It is also the only Historically Black work college and the only one west of the Mississippi. Berea College, founded in 1855 in Kentucky, is the nation’s oldest work college. College of the Ozarks is distinctly patriotic (and Christian), while Antioch College focuses on social justice. (Antioch, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, is the most recent Federal Work Colleges designee. It became a work college earlier this year.) These institutions offer a variety of majors and work experiences.
Two reforms could help work colleges to keep costs down and attract additional students.At Warren Wilson College, for instance, students can study art and craft, traditional music, Appalachian studies, or conservation biology, just to name a few offered majors. At College of the Ozarks, criminal justice, military science, and nursing appear on the list.
Students’ costs also vary widely by institution. “No Tuition. No Kidding” is a point of pride at Berea College. “From the very beginning, Berea College was founded to be accessible to people who otherwise could not afford a college education,” the website states. Berea has always been “open to all people in the region, regardless of … ability to pay.” At Warren Wilson, tuition will be lowered from $41,500 to $25,500 beginning in fall 2025. According to the college, the new published tuition will be “closer to what students actually pay.”
Like many other private nonprofit colleges and universities, most work colleges have lost enrollment over the past five years. Expense is one challenge for such schools. According to the Consortium, “Because work is mandatory for all resident students and because all work is compensated (work helps to offset or fully cover tuition), operating a work college is not inexpensive.”
Two reforms could help work colleges to keep costs down and attract additional students. One option is to give students course credit for the work they are already doing as part of the program. Another option would be for work colleges to introduce 90-hour degrees (which the Martin Center wrote about here). Either option would align with the colleges’ mission of work-learning-service. Public university systems could also consider converting institutions into work colleges.
Work colleges are a distinctive and valuable alternative within the higher-education marketplace. Despite their current challenges, I hope to see higher enrollment and more such institutions in the future.
Jenna A. Robinson is president of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.