Colleagues,
We wanted to alert you to a development that will affect Winter Session 2020-2021 course enrollments. In past years, financial aid was not available for students who enrolled in a Winter Session course. This year, we will be offering special “Winter Session Scholarships” to many students with high financial need. While eligibility details will be finalized shortly, we know that a student receiving this award will receive a free Winter Session course. This program, in response to the pandemic, will target students with financial need that can benefit academically from a Winter Session course. As a result of this scholarship program, we project overall Winter Session enrollment will be significantly higher than in past years, with perhaps as many as 1,500 additional students enrolling.
We wanted to make you aware of this program as you contemplate Winter Session offerings. We anticipate an overall increase in enrollment of approximately 75% over last year. Please do not announce this program to students yet; we will do so in a way that clarifies eligibility in the coming weeks.
We ask that as you continue your plans for course development and offerings, you take this into account in ensuring seat availability, design quality, and achievement of learning outcomes. Units will be reimbursed the same way, regardless of whether or not students who enroll in their courses are on scholarship. As a reminder, with the implementation of the IVCB model in fiscal year 2020, tuition flows 100% to the colleges with the same calculation regardless of term. Additional specifics regarding the IVCB model are available in this whitepaper.
Questions regarding tuition flow can be addressed to your unit budget office; questions specific to the class scheduling process should be directed to fms-courses@illinois.edu, and Anna Mehl is the point of contact for other questions about Winter Session.
Sincerely,
Kathy Martensen
Assistant Provost for Educational Programs
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost
Anna Mehl
Project Coordinator for Educational Innovation
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost
