Thanks to a unique partnership between Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), a community college honor society with more than 3.5 million members, students can earn college credit by completing courses through PTK Edge.

Four PTK Edge Leadership Development Studies (LDS) courses are now aligned with organizational leadership and general studies courses at SNHU. PTK Edge Leadership Development Studies and Employment EDGE courses each earn three elective credits toward an online bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership. Competitive EDGE and Research EDGE are each worth two general studies courses.

“SNHU exists to remove obstacles to accessible education and lowering costs is a big part of that,” said Debbie Lloyd, Assistant Vice President of University Partnerships at SNHU. Offering transfer credits and a tuition discount is, according to Lloyd, “another sign of SNHU’s commitment to further its mission to do what’s right for our students and partners.”

SNHU offers its organizational leadership degree as a concentration in the online bachelor's in business administration program. The skills the program focuses on include aligning management approaches with an organization’s philosophies, using data to make strategic business decisions, and communicating effectively to diverse audiences. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021), employment for management positions is expected to grow 9 percent through 2030 and the median wage for those occupations was $109,760 in 2020. The total of 10 PTK Edge and LDS courses are part of the 90 credits SNHU accepts for students transferring into a bachelor’s degree program. SNHU also offers a 10 percent tuition discount to PTK members.

SNHU is among the first universities to offer college credit for the courses, which are free to PTK members, and can save students interested in pursuing a bachelor’s degree following their community college experience thousands of dollars. PTK, now more than a century old, gives out $1.5 million in scholarships to its members annually as well as a collection of free online courses intended to help students build important skills to successfully transfer from a community college to a four-year institution.

In addition to a generous credit transfer policy, SNHU offers more than 200 programs, such as business, healthcare and nursing, information technology, psychology and counseling, and liberal arts. SNHU is a private, nonprofit university accredited by the New Hampshire Commission of High Education (NECHE).

Southern New Hampshire University was an Innovations 2022 sponsor and exhibitor.

Reference

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2021). Occupational outlook handbook: Management occupations. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/home.htm#:~:text=Employment%20in%20management%20occupations%20is,in%20about%20906%2C800%20new%20jobs