ABC News: Chancellor Brahm KNX Los Angeles Radio Interview

The following content first appeared on the news page while UMass Global operated under its former name of Brandman University.

Brandman University Chancellor Gary Brahm was recently featured in a nationally syndicated interview with ABC News discussing competency-based education and a survey the university conducted with Harris Poll regarding the primary obstacles facing working adults. Listen to the interview:

ABC Radio transcript

Daria Albinger: I’m ABC’s Daria Albinger. You want to go to college but you’re holding off because it takes a lot of time and it can be very expensive. Well some schools are rethinking the experience. Online programs have been around for a while. Now some are taking the next step toward what’s known as competency-based education. Among them, Brandman University in Irvine, California. Chancellor Gary Brahm explains how it works.

Chancellor Gary Brahm: You spend time learning what you need to learn and when you master the competency you move on to the next one. It’s mastery based not time based.

Daria Albinger: Programs are open to anyone with a high school diploma or GED but Brahm knows the program will be especially attractive to certain prospective students.

Chancellor Gary Brahm: For working adults who already know quite a bit, they can move much more quickly through things and they do it on their own. It’s online.

Daria Albinger: For now it’s just business degrees but Brahm expects his school to expand to more majors. Daria Albinger, ABC News.

Chancellor Brahm also discussed the survey results and Brandman’s new CBE platform MyPath on KNX radio in Los Angeles.

KNX transcript

KNX: It’s estimated that 37 million adults have begun a college degree but have since dropped out of school. A new survey conducted for Brandman University, based in Irvine, tried to find out why so many people fail to finish what they started. We’ve got more on the poll from Brandman University Chancellor Gary Brahm.

Chancellor Gary Brahm: Seventy-eight percent realize that there are significant benefits to earning a degree from an accredited institution. And so that’s really wonderful news because they recognize the importance of the degree but unfortunately there are barriers that they found to earning that degree. And so some of the most significant barriers are the cost of tuition and textbooks, which 63% said kept them from earning a degree, or the lack of time to take classes that another 37 percent were bothered by that. Some say they’re too old and we’re never too old but there’s a feeling out there by some who haven’t completed their degrees that they’re too old to do so.

KNX: He says a degree can really have practical use.

Brahm: Even though many of these folks don’t have degrees they realize that a degree would provide opportunity for changing their job or their careers or help them get a pay raise. More than half the folks in the survey realize that it would provide them additional skills to further their career.

KNX: He says new online courses offer a cheap alternative to traditional education.

Brahm: Now there are opportunities for students who realize how important but have been held back by the cost of tuition and books and the time it takes to get classes — the time it takes to spent time in class — that enables them to earn a degree. There is the technology that has enabled students to take online programs that will enable them to finish their degree and they can do it at a low cost without paying for text books. Brandman University has MyPath. It’s a self-paced program that enables students to move as quickly as they can.

KNX: He says online courses with textbook material embedded can cut the cost of a year of tuition.