Table G: Better Together: An Innovative Educational Collaboration Advances Regional Workforce Development

Nelson Mandela said, “It always seems impossible until it is done.” Collaboration among institutions of higher education—especially public community colleges and private liberal arts colleges—can be fiendishly complicated, but it can be done, and it’s worth the effort. In this roundtable conversation, faculty and administrators from Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) and Roanoke College (RC) will highlight an innovative partnership between the two organizations to offer degrees in biotechnology, with VWCC students having a seamless 2+2 pathway to the BS degree and RC students taking three foundational courses in the degree on VWCC’s campus. The degree enables both institutions to address workforce needs in the Roanoke Valley, validating the contributions of collaborative higher education to the regional economy.