RADFORD – Radford University has entered into an agreement with Academic Partnerships (AP) to provide its nursing and business degree programs online throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia and beyond.
To be offered through the partnership are the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN), the Master of Science in Nursing Administration and the Master of Business Administration degrees.
Through this partnership, Radford University will also expand its outreach of the Vinod Chachra IMPACT Lab by offering cybersecurity and geospatial intelligence certificates to help individuals accelerate their careers in technology. Additional certificate programs are planned for the future to meet the expanding workforce demands of Virginia and beyond.
The expanded programs will help combat the impact of COVID-19 on the economy by providing working adults with affordable and easily accessible degree programs in critical, high-growth fields.
Radford University President Brian O. Hemphill said of the innovative partnership, “Radford University is honored to enter into this important collaboration with Academic Partnerships, a well-known and highly-regarded company that has assisted institutions in reaching new student markets by implementing and supporting fully online programs that are both in-demand and top-quality.
“The important work associated with this new partnership will be driven by our world-class faculty with strong support from various administrative areas. The Radford family looks forward to welcoming new Highlanders to both engage in and learn in fully online environments now and well into the future.”
Academic Partnerships is a leading online facilitator in the United States. Based in Dallas, AP is a partner to more than 50 universities across the country, primarily regional public universities, helping those institutions expand access to top-quality, affordable and workforce relevant education.
“We at Academic Partnerships are proud to help Radford University expand access to its top-quality degree programs,” said Rob Ganji, AP’s CEO.
“At AP, we’re passionate about the positive impact of affordable education on students and their families, and we look forward to helping offer more opportunities to students in Virginia and across the surrounding states,” Ganji said. “We’ve deliberately designed our business model to ensure that our university partners, such as Radford University, and Academic Partnerships serve distinct roles and utilize each of our core competencies to deliver a high-quality student experience and to enable student success.”
“Under the terms of our working relationship, Radford and its faculty will continue to drive academic quality by controlling all aspects of the online programs such as teaching, curriculum and course content, admissions, student grading, financial aid and credentialing,” said RU’s Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Lyn Lepre.
“It was very important to us that the programs be driven by Radford faculty, while AP works in partnership with our faculty to convert their courses to an online format and recruit and help retain students through program completion,” Lepre said. “In this way, we are aligned to help ensure that student success is paramount across the duration of the program.”
