SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – In recognition of Financial Literacy Month, Western Governors University (WGU) has announced the addition of new resources as part of its Responsible Borrowing Initiative (RBI). The resources will provide students with relevant personal finance tools and easy access to external scholarship opportunities.
Through a partnership with Inceptia, WGU students now have access to Financial Avenue, an online financial education program that provides students with the knowledge and tools to become financially capable through the delivery of dynamic and interactive content.
“Financial Avenue provides useful, easily digestible resources that help demystify the world of personal finance with a solid foundation in money management,” said Bob Collins, WGU’s Vice President of Financial Aid. “WGU students should find this content engaging because it’s offered in a variety of formats, such as videos and interactive quizzes, allowing them to learn in their preferred manner.”
Additionally, WGU students now have access to a one-stop shop for external scholarship listings. In partnership with CampusLogic, WGU recently launched Scholarship Universe, a comprehensive scholarship matching engine with nearly 10,000 vetted, external scholarships. Scholarship Universe simplifies the application process by requiring students to create only one profile in order to apply for as many external scholarships as they qualify for, while also assuring them that the offerings are legitimate.
Since 2013, when WGU implemented the RBI program, it has reduced student loan debt by 40 percent. The average debt at graduation is about $15,000—less than half the national average. In that same time, the university has seen its student loan default rate steadily decrease to 4.1 percent, while the national average is currently 10.8 percent.
The early success of WGU’s RBI program relies on the premise of helping students make informed decisions to borrow wisely, and these new resources add to WGU students’ financial-literacy toolbox.
“Financial Avenue users have access to an action plan and additional tools at the end of each course to help them implement the practices they learned,” Collins said. “And Scholarship Universe will provide our students additional help in reducing or avoiding student debt by efficiently matching them with potential external scholarship opportunities that could lower their tuition burden even below WGU’s surprisingly affordable rates.”
