Alaska doesn't have to be just one more item on your wish list;
it's a fine place to come for your higher education experience.
You could come to Alaska because of the university's world-class
reputation for academic excellence, for its Arctic research
opportunities, for its Circumpolar health programs, for its
fisheries capabilities, for its information technology, or for
its teacher education programs.
But other universities elsewhere could also brag about their
programs. Sure, they offer good programs too. But they don't
offer them in a place where you can see North America's highest
mountain (and climb it if you're of the mind), or where you can
spend your morning flyfishing or, if the season's right, ski to
your class. In the evening, you could be developing computer
models on the latest model Cray supercomputer.
Other universities also offer classes in wildlife management,
but not where you're likely to see moose or black bears
strolling around on campus! Or courses in anthropology, but in
Alaska you can study with North American and Russian Native
peoples, and experience their cultures first hand.
The University of Alaska, the state's only public institution of
higher learning, is under the leadership of a new president,
Mark R. Hamilton. One of his first acts was to announce the UA
Scholars Program, which this year for the first time will offer
four-year scholarship awards to the top ten per cent of Alaska's
high school graduating classes, a program which is attracting
national attention.
There are three regional university centers in the system - the
University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), the University of Alaska
Fairbanks (UAF) and the University of Alaska Southeast (UAS).
UAA serves over 18,600 students from all its campuses. In
addition to the largest campus in Anchorage, the campuses on
Kenai Peninsula College, Kodiak College, Matanuska-Susitna
College in Palmer, and Prince William Sound Community College in
Valdez are integral parts of UAA, which has exchange and
cooperative agreements with Japan, Koea, Finland, Canada, China
and Russia.
UAF is a land-, sea- and space-grant institution, serving more
than 9,000 students in the state's Interior, Western and
Aleutian Islands region. The main campus is located in
Fairbanks, Alaska's second largest city. UAF oversees the
Bristol Bay campus in Dillingham, the Chukchi Campus in Kotzebue,
the Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel and the Northwest Campus in Nome.
The Tanana Valley Campus is located in Fairbanks, as is the
Interior-Aleutians Campus which administers learning centers and
distance delivery education to more than 100 communities
throughout the state. UAF has exchange and cooperative
agreements with Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, Norway,
Mexico, Russia, Taiwan and Sweden.
The Fairbanks campus of UAF is a major attraction for cultural
and intellectual activities for Interior Alaska, and includes
the University of Alaska Museum which attracts over 100,000
visitors a year. UAF is home to the Arctic Region Supercomputing
Center, where high performance computational research is
conducted, and to the new International Arctic Research Center,
the system's only doctoral degree-granting institution.
UAS serves more than 5,000 students each year in southeast
Alaska, with the largest campus located in Juneau, with branch
campuses in Ketchikan and Sitka, and outreach locations
throughout the region. UAS has cooperative agreements with the
Yukon Territory, and provides distance delivery programs to
specific UA rural campuses. One of the most active clubs on the
Juneau campus is Global Connections, which meets weekly for
dinners and programs about other countries. The Juneau campus
has about 100 international students.
On all three major regional campuses, there are international
students (a total of nearly 1,000 at last count), and plenty of
social activities related to clubs, outdoor recreation and
fitness programs. There are plenty of chances to exercise
English language skills, too, because Alaska doesn't have large
ethnic groups on or off campus that would enable students to
continue speaking their native language most of the time.
Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, is also home to Alaska Pacific
University, a private institution located near the main campus
of UAA, and in Sitka where UAS has a branch campus, there is
also Sheldon Jackson College, the oldest educational institution
in the state. It was started in 1873 by Sheldon Jackson, an
energetic Presbyterian missionary, and is now a four-year
institution.
For all higher education students, Alaska offers adventures in
education, and an education in adventure. Come see what all the
excitement is about! For more information about educational
opportunities in Alaska, you may want to visit these Websites:
University of Alaska:
http://www.alaska.edu
Alaska Pacific University:
http://www.alaskapacific.edu
Sheldon Jackson College:
http://sheldonjackson.edu |
