Twenty-four colleges and seven universities make up Minnesota State, the Minnesota system of higher education. Changes in student behavior and the ways in which they receive their education has led Minnesota State to implement new ways to approach higher education.

“Students change over time,” SMSU President Dr. Connie Gores said.

They have access to technology and information that was not available to their parents and many of their professors. There is also more diversity among the student body. Many come from different parts of the country and world with all different backgrounds.

Charting the Future, a strategic collaboration effort, aims to help Minnesota State adapt to these changes.

“One of the ways that student behavior has changed is that years ago students went to one institution and stayed in that institution,” Gores said.

Today, students are much more mobile than before. One way Minnesota State hopes to adapt to this change is to implement transfer pathways from school to school.

“We prefer that when students come to SMSU as freshman that they stay,” Gores said, “but we also have students who transfer in, and for those students, this transfer pathway is designed to help students transfer seamlessly and easily from two-year colleges to us.”

A concern among some students and staff is that Charting the Future will essentially turn four-year universities into four-year tech schools.

“SMSU’s mission is not changing at all,” Gores said. “We all have our disincentive identities within our system.”

Each school has their own mission and role to play within the community.    

“Our mission is based on the liberal arts tradition,” Gores said. “We do develop students for the workforce and for leadership, graduate school and for life and that’s a different approach than in a technical institution.”

Another change which will be implemented is the addition of a student advising plan. With these, students can see what courses they will need to take each semester from their freshman to their senior year. Although some majors here have had that, Gores said that not all have.

Another concern is that Charting the Future will force the different institutions to offer uniform degrees.

In order to offer financial aid, transfer credits and have their credits accepted at other institutions, each of the universities has to be accredited.

“The accreditation is just for the university,” Gores said. “That’s not for the whole system.”

The accreditation process goes campus by campus. This means that as a system, Minnesota State cannot offer any degree. Each institution is accredited separately giving it its own identity which allows it to offer their own degrees.

“So we still have our own autonomy as part of a system,” Gores said.