Concord, New Hampshire – The Rivier University, a small catholic institution, will offer a job to its students within the next 9 month after the graduation. If they do not get any, the University will either pay their federally subsidized students loans for up to a year or enroll them in up to six master’s degree courses-tuition free.
The program, called “Employment Promise Program”, will be available to full-time undergraduates and it starts with the class of 2020, as reported by the Miami Herald.
“We want to send a message that we recruit not just for the first year, but we’re a partner throughout an educational experience with students,” University president Sister Paula Marie Buley said. She also added that the program is a commitment to partner with the student in each step, in the classroom, the campus, the community and starting up their career.
The college has about 2,600 students at the moment and in the class of 2014, 95 % of them were either employed, in graduate school or in the military six months after the graduation, according to the University president.
Nearly 200 freshman start at the University each year, and Buley said she expected most of them to participate in the program. But, certains strains attach, as the student participating in the Employment Promise Program must maintain a 3.0 minimum grade point average and participate in a variety of activities –that include career counseling, community service and internships.
With those conditions, the institution will provide specialized academic and career action plans designed to enhance a student’s employability. Although this kind of programs have been done before, the catholic University is the first in New Hampshire to offer it.
This opportunities were thought by college officials as a solution to skyrocketing tuition cost and student loan defaults. The University also sees it as a program “aimed to reassuring parents” that the significant cost of $28,800 is worth it, because they said that the students and the parents are a team at the moment to choose university, and that the program will really “speaks to both of their interest”.
Source: The Miami Herald