WASHINGTON, July 18, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Excelsior College and the Saylor Foundation have teamed to provide a low-cost pathway to college credit. Through this new partnership, the two organizations will pair a number of the high-quality courses that are freely available via www.saylor.org with Excelsior's well-recognized credit-by-exam programs.
Individuals who take advantage of this partnership will have an opportunity to receive college credit at a fraction of the cost of traditional higher education programs. Students who complete a free Saylor.org course can opt to take an Excelsior College Examination or UExcel Exam that aligns with the selected course for as little as $95. Students who successfully pass an exam can earn three to six college credits and may elect to enroll at Excelsior, a regionally accredited college, or transfer the credit to one of 1500+ colleges and universities across the United States that recognize credits earned through these proficiency exams.
Excelsior College Examinations and UExcel Exams are taken at any of more than 1,000 PearsonVue secure testing centers around the globe. UExcel Exams have been developed by Excelsior in collaboration with Pearson, the world's leading education company.
"Quality academic content is no longer the sole province of a place-bound college campus," said Excelsior College President Dr. John F. Ebersole. "In today's post-traditional era of higher education, quality open education resources such as those provided by Saylor.org via the Web have dramatically changed the way students can access and acquire knowledge. Our examinations, developed by faculty from across the country, provide the credible means for students to demonstrate that they have mastered a given subject matter while earning college credit and Saylor.org courses provide excellent preparation for these exams."
In pursuit of its mission to make education freely available for all, the Saylor Foundation supports a team of university professors as they design high-quality, college-level courseware that enable students, otherwise unable to access college-level instruction, to pursue their educational goals. Recognizing the quality of open education resources provided by institutions like the Saylor Foundation, MIT, and the Khan Academy, Excelsior has incorporated these resources as preparation for its American Council on Education (ACE CREDIT) recognized competency assessments leading to bachelor's degrees in liberal studies and business.
"Excelsior College has done phenomenal work in removing barriers to accredited adult education, a goal similarly shared by our team," said Alana Harrington, Director of the Saylor Foundation. "This partnership will advance both of our organization's objectives and will hopefully provide opportunities to learners who otherwise could not afford to continue their pursuit of a postsecondary degree."
About Excelsior
Excelsior College is a regionally accredited, nonprofit distance learning institution that focuses on removing obstacles to the educational goals of adult learners. Founded in 1971 and located in Albany, NY, Excelsior is a proven leader in the assessment and validation of student knowledge. It offers more efficient and affordable access to degree completion through multiple avenues: its own online courses and college-level proficiency examinations, and the acceptance in transfer of credit from other colleges and universities as well as recognized corporate and military training programs. Excelsior College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
About the Saylor Foundation
The Saylor Foundation (under its legal name, The Constitution Foundation) is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Foundation was established in 1999 by Michael J. Saylor, the Chairman, CEO and President of the business intelligence company MicroStrategy. Mr. Saylor serves as the Foundation's sole trustee. The Foundation's focus since 2008 has been its Free Education Initiative, through which it is using technology to drive down the cost of education to zero. Saylor.org serves as a zero-cost alternative for individuals who lack the resources to attend traditional brick-and-mortar institutions and as a complement to willing mainstream education providers. Saylor expects free, self-paced, automated online learning opportunities to motivate people to pursue personal growth and career ambitions as well as to lead to institutional change among education providers everywhere.
More information about the Saylor Foundation and its 200+ free, college-level courses is available at http://www.saylor.org.
The Saylor Foundation logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=13180
