– This paper aims to describe how coffeehouse chain Starbucks has teamed up with Arizona State University (ASU) to offer a big discount on online undergraduate education for 135,000 employees.
– It outlines the origins of the Starbucks college achievement plan, the form it takes and the aims it seeks to achieve.
– It explains that employees admitted to ASU as a junior or senior earn full tuition reimbursement for each semester of full-time coursework they complete toward a bachelor’s degree. Students already in their first or second years of study are eligible for a partial tuition scholarship and need-based financial help for two years of full-time study. Employees do not have to carry on working at Starbucks after graduation.
– It reveals that the Starbucks investment is designed to support the nearly 50 per cent of college students in the USA today who fail to complete their degrees because of a mounting debt, a tenuous work-life balance and a lack of support.
– It claims that the scheme can help to repair the fractured American dream.
– It demonstrates how the Starbucks college achievement plan will provide an academic foundation along with the flexibility, financing and support that working students need to complete their degree.
