A Community College System and a Private University in Chicago Team Together to Improve Accessibility in STEM

A collaboration between the City Colleges of Chicago, a network of seven community colleges, and the University of Chicago, a private research university, aims to strengthen and improve accessibility to STEM education. The two institutions will create science-related programs that focus on four key areas: education, research, employment pathways and civic engagement. 

Ccc Embed 2Photo by Eddie Quinones for UChicago NewsAs part of the collaboration, UChicago faculty will advise CCC on curriculum and academic programing; the two will create new fellowships, internships and other programs that will bring CCC students to the UChicago campus and vice versa; and faculty from both institutions will collaborate on research initiatives, among other goals.

“This relationship is about harnessing two of our city’s higher education assets to create unprecedented opportunities and, ultimately, a more inclusive economy,” said City Colleges of Chicago Chancellor Juan Salgado in a UChicago announcement. “With this collaboration agreement, we increase our capacity as an institution to be responsive to our community. We’ll not only create new pathways and internship opportunities for our students, but we’ll also build a pipeline of educators prepared to teach in new and emerging STEM fields. It promises to be transformative not only for our students but for our faculty—and for the students and faculty of the University of Chicago as well.”

The first specific outgrowth the new collaboration will be a new CCC degree program in data science that will include both UChicago and CCC faculty.

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