ATLANTA— Morehouse College, the nation’s only HBCU dedicated to developing and educating men, today announced the planned launch of Morehouse Online, an online undergraduate program that will complement its heralded traditional on-campus experience. Morehouse Online is the centerpiece of Morehouse’s digital transformation and part of a strategy to create innovative and robust programs for non-traditional students.
In partnership with 2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU), a global leader in education technology, initial offerings will launch in August 2021 and will include a bachelor’s degree completion program in business administration with a management concentration, as well as other disciplines. These programs are designed for non-traditional students with existing college credit and adult life experience seeking to complete their bachelor’s degrees, and to serve men who enrolled at Morehouse but left before completing their undergraduate experience. Morehouse expects to announce information on fully online bachelor’s degree programs in the near future.
Admission requirements, application procedures, and course offerings will be announced over the coming months. Enrollment will open in spring 2021. Interested students can sign up to receive more information as it becomes available at https://2u.com/morehouseonline.
Morehouse Online represents Morehouse’s first major step in implementing its new strategic plan which provides a road map to extend Morehouse’s reach beyond its traditional borders and other efforts to support its mission-driven approach to developing leaders who will pursue lives of leadership and service in the 21st century.
“There has never been a more important time for the impact of Morehouse to scale,” said Dr. David A. Thomas, president of Morehouse College. “The challenges we face as a society today require exceptional leaders with superior critical thinking skills, a high moral compass, and a tireless pursuit for a just world. These are the kinds of leaders we’ve been producing since our founding. We look forward to continuing educating and uplifting Black men and men of color. The accessibility of an online education allows us to deliver the Morehouse experience and education to countless men who can bring their light to the world in the same way alums like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jeh Johnson, Spike Lee, Senator Raphael Warnock, and countless others have.”
Thomas continued, “Our world-class faculty are uniquely capable of using the expertise we have developed by producing transformative leaders for more than 154 years to make highly-relevant instruction available through cutting-edge platforms and delivery methods.”
Under the partnership with 2U, Morehouse will maintain control over hiring faculty, developing curriculum and course requirements, setting admissions standards and admitting students, as well as providing all academic instruction. The Morehouse Online degrees will be powered by 2U’s comprehensive technology and services, enabling Morehouse to deliver an intentionally designed online educational experience for both students and faculty.
“2U is honored to become Morehouse College’s digital transformation partner. At a moment when the need for more accessible, high-quality post-secondary education has never been greater, we are excited to help such an iconic institution and HBCU bring its distinctive undergraduate degree programs online,” said 2U Co-Founder and CEO Christopher “Chip” Paucek. “The strategic vision of President David A. Thomas to create a global Morehouse will open the doors of opportunity and promise of a Morehouse education and its special community to men of all ages, regardless of geography, for the first time in the school’s history.”
Securing a bachelor’s degree from a highly respected institution continues to be one of the clearest pathways to professional advancement in the U.S. However, today, over 3.4 million Black men over the age of 25 in the U.S. have some college credit but no degree, or an associate’s degree. By creating a more flexible and accessible pathway to a high-quality bachelor’s degree, Morehouse Online will equip more Black men to pursue careers of influence, service, and impact and reach leadership positions that drive economic and social change.
“I left Morehouse to enlist in the U.S. Army in 1991,” said Morehouse alumnus Travis Trammell. “I re-enrolled years later and came back to campus to earn my bachelor of science degree in biology as part of the class of 2001, graduating with honors and a 3.3 grade point average. As difficult as it was to stop and re-enroll, quitting was not in my vocabulary and certainly not an option. Had I been able to take courses online though, I would’ve definitely completed my degree even sooner.”
About Morehouse College
Morehouse College is the only historically Black college dedicated to educating men. Founded in 1867, Morehouse is a private, liberal arts institution and the nation’s top producer of Black men who go on to receive doctorates and the top producer of Rhodes Scholars among HBCUs. The College was named to the list of U.S. institutions that produced the most Fulbright Scholars in 2019-2020. As the epicenter for thought leadership on civil rights, Morehouse is committed to helping the nation address the inequities caused by institutional racism, which has created social and economic disparities for people of African descent. Prominent Morehouse alumni include: Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; Dr. David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General; Shelton “Spike” Lee, Academy Award-winning American filmmaker; Maynard H. Jackson, the first African American mayor of Atlanta; Jeh Johnson, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security; Louis W. Sullivan, former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services; Bakari Sellers, attorney and CNN political analyst; Randall Woodfin, elected as the youngest mayor of Birmingham in 120 years; and Raphael Warnock, Senator from Georgia. For more information, visit: https://morehouse.edu.
About 2U, Inc. (Nasdaq: TWOU)
Eliminating the back row in higher education is not just a metaphor—it's our mission. For more than a decade, 2U, Inc., a global leader in education technology, has been a trusted partner and brand steward of great universities. We build, deliver, and support more than 475 digital educational offerings, including undergraduate and graduate degrees, professional certificates, Trilogy-powered boot camps, and GetSmarter short courses. Together with our partners, 2U has positively transformed the lives of more than 275,000 students and lifelong learners. To learn more, visit 2U.com. #NoBackRow
