Hancock College wins National Education Award

SANTA MARIA — Allan

Hancock College is one of two colleges to receive the 2023 American Council on Education/ Fidelity Investments Award for Institutional Transformation.

The Santa Maria-based college was presented the award along with a $10,000 prize at ACE’s annual meeting April 14 in Washington, D.C.

The award was created to recognize institutions that respond uniquely and critically to challenges in higher education.

“Allan Hancock College and Texas Woman’s University serve as excellent examples of the efforts our institutions are undertaking to increase access to higher education and meet the needs of an ever-more diverse student body,” said ACE President Ted Mitchell.

Hancock specifically received the award for their “Credit

Where Credit’s Due” program, which is an automated degree awarding program. Different departments across the college worked to develop an algorithm that organizes and identifies students who are close to degree completion and automatically awards them their degrees, instead of students applying for graduation.

The college said 1,144 Hancock students received a total of

2,849 degrees and/or certificates through the automated program and total degree earners increased by 22% during the first year of the program. Over the first two years of the program, 64% of all auto-awarded degrees or certificates went to Hispanic and black students and students from traditionally underrepresented ethnic groups.