WKU News

WKU is having lots of success with a national program that helps people who never completed their degree cross that finish line.

WKU’s Amy Bingham has more about “Degrees when Due” in this week’s View from the Hill.

Close to 60 former WKU students have earned their diploma in the past year and a half thanks to the success of “Degrees when Due.” The program is for former students who were close, but for whatever reason, were not able to finish their degree.

Adam Hendricks is a farmer in Logan County.

“I farm with my brother and my cousin. We have about 3,200 acres of row crop ground. We grow corn, wheat and soybeans.”

He’s also a WKU alum from the class of 2006, or is he?

“It’s kind of been a running joke for years now that well he kind of graduated but he didn’t.”

A snafu with an English 300 assignment meant Adam was one course shy of getting his diploma.

“I had a correspondence class and I was just unable to get it completed in the time frame that should have been completed in and I actually withdrew from that class.  So even though I walked the line, I didn’t get my degree at that time.”

Hendricks is exactly the type of former student being contacted by WKU.

“We looked at a list of students that had 90 plus hours already earned at WKU and were still in good academic standing.”

Working with the Registrar’s office, Assistant Vice President for Student Success Chris Jensen says his staff helps remove barriers so people can go back and finish their degree.

“Some of them had to come back for a semester and just finish a few hours. Others we were able to submit paperwork on campus or make substitutions for courses or make exceptions and we were able to award a degree without the student ever coming back on campus physically.”

That was the case for Adam.

“He was able to substitute one class that I had taken while I was at Western and they were able to substitute that for the English 300 course.”

He will soon receive the diploma he felt he earned all those years ago.

“I know that I graduated and I know I did the work but it’s kind of nice to have the paper show that it is finished.”

Jensen says they are continuing to mine the data of former students who qualify for the program. For information on Degrees When Due, you can email finish@wku.edu.  

WKU has been so successful with Degrees when Due that Jensen has been asked to present at national conferences.