Peter McPhersonThe Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) received a $2.5 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help break down higher education barriers for students.
Under the foundation’s Intermediaries for Scale two-year grant, only 12 organizations were awarded the funding out of 200 applicants.
APLU will launch the Powered by Publics: Scaling Student Success effort to 14 member institutions. With the initiative, each selected institution will gain assistance to support a smooth transition process for students from a two-year to a four-year institution, receive digital learning aid and offer corequisite support over remedial education.
“Public universities are laser-focused on increasing college access, equity and the number of degrees they award,” said APLU President Peter McPherson in a statement. “This funding will be essential to advancing those aims on our member campuses and sharing lessons from their work across the sector. We thank our membership for their unyielding commitment to these issues and the foundation for its deep investment in equity and student success.”
