UW-Barron County was recently officially approved to be the first UW College campus to offer
Wisconsin technical college associate degree graduates the ability to apply up to 60 of their associate degree credits towards our innovative and successful Bachelor of Applied Arts and Science degree
(BAAS).
This is great news for the thousands of WITC, CVTC, and other technical college graduates in the region who are seeking educational and career advancement by earning a very practical and affordable applied bachelor’s degree conveniently “at home” here at UW-BC.
Effective for the fall of 2014, students with an associate degree from any Wisconsin Technical College
System (WTCS) school can now use that degree as a stepping stone toward a Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) degree at UW-Barron County.
Applications for fall are open now for this first-of-its-kind program that accepts up to 60 credits from each student’s WTCS degree, making a flexible and affordable UW BAAS degree achievable in as few as two more years. In the past, only an Associate of Arts and Science degree from UW-Barron County or an equivalent liberal arts college degree was accepted in the BAAS degree.
As a campus striving to enhance educational opportunities and career advancement for all citizens of our region, we are thrilled to be able to offer this convenient applied bachelor’s degree opportunity to graduates of fine schools like WITC.
It is a fact that as people move up in their careers they often find they need a bachelor’s degree to advance to the next level of management and leadership in the workplace. The BAAS is designed for those individuals. They can build upon the WTCS associate degree and professional experience that they already have on their pathway to achieving a UW bachelor’s degree.
The BAAS degree completion program is designed for adults of all ages who may have jobs or families and want to earn a bachelor’s degree close to home. Classes are taught both in-person and online by faculty from UW-Barron County and six other UW System partner institutions, including UW-La Crosse,
UW-Parkside, UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Stout, and UW-Superior.
BAAS students can select from over 100 diverse courses in various disciplines from these partner campuses to create an individualized concentration or focus. Students may choose to develop individualized BAAS degrees with an emphasis in such high-demand fields as organizational leadership, business administration, applied communication, healthcare management, environmental and sustainable management, and international relations, and public affairs.
The program focuses on developing the critical workplace skills employers say they want, including critical thinking, information processing, interpersonal communication, effective problem solving, and a

collaborative work ethic. It includes a strong component of community engagement and practical hands-on experiences in addition to classroom learning that prepares students to apply theoretical knowledge and higher order thinking skills to solve complex problems in the workplace and community.
This new BAAS technical college pathway indeed provides the employees and employers of our region with an incredible opportunity for workforce development – a critical mission and objective for UW-BC.
For more information about the new BAAS degree pathway for technical college graduates please contact the UW-Barron County Student Services Office at 715-234-8176, ext. 1 or Deb Neuheisel-Smith at 715-234-8176, ext. 5445.
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