Statement of Purpose
WASHINGTON TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY was incorporated in the State of Washington in March 2017. The University’s mission is to provide affordable education taught by academic and industry experts in state-of-the-art facilities. The University utilizes technology solutions to keep costs low for students. While WTU is a for profit university, tuition rates will be 50% or more below other local private universities. Using a new model for a University, WTU will provide affordable and modernized education solutions for students. This will significantly benefit students through lower costs and shorter time to graduation.
The State of Washington has a grand array of both public and private colleges and universities. Indeed, Washington is rated very high in access to postsecondary education. This is primarily because of the extensive availability of the community and technical colleges in the State. These schools, which provide education up to the associate’s degree level, serve over 200,000 students in the Seattle/Tacoma Metropolitan area, and thousands more statewide.
Surprisingly the State of Washington ranks quite low in access to bachelor education, which means that it is difficult for associate’s degree recipients to transfer to complete their bachelor's degrees. Bachelor’s degree access is most constrained in the greater Seattle/Tacoma Metropolitan region where there is only one public 4-year university—even with the start in 1990 of its two branch campuses—and the various Bachelor continuation programs of other public and private universities. And this is even more limited for the technology programs needed by the many businesses in the community, particularly those on the Eastside. Thus, providing new, innovative, reasonably priced, and timely degree completion technology Bachelor degree programs is highly needed.
A complete Application for Degree-Granting Authority for the initial degree program—a Bachelor of Science in Information Security—was submitted in early May 2017 to the Washington State Student Achievement Council, as required by Washington State law. On October 23, 2017 WTU was notified by the Washington Student Achievement Council that it was authorized to offer the Bachelor of Science in Information Security in the State of Washington in accordance with Washington State Law, The Degree-Granting Institutions Act, (RCW 28B.85).
In the future, WTU expects to apply for regional and national accreditation, which is a precursor to qualify it to administer federal financial aid and admit international students. Funding through that time will come from modest student tuition and significant investment from the founders.