Southeast Texas P-16 Council

Lamar University is “getting it right” by offering one of the nation’s most affordable online graduate programs in nursing, according to an online education consumer group that ranks nursing and healthcare schools for cost and credibility.

“Lamar is a top example of a public university that is using distance learning to make healthcare education physically and financially accessible to Texans in these hard economic times,” said Vicky Phillips, a spokeswoman for the Vermont-based consumer group.

The web site GetEducated.com ranked Lamar as the No. 2 most affordable distance degree for Texas graduate students seeking nursing education online. Its online students who live in Texas pay a low cost of about $11,005 for a distance master’s degree from LU, according to reviewers for the consumer group. (Out-of-state online students pay a higher cost of about $22,475.)

“The distance healthcare master’s degree offered by Lamar University and reviewed by Get Educated cost less than half the average of competing degrees in the same accreditation class,” said Phillips, Get Educated’s chief online education analyst. “Lamar’s distance-learning-degree programs are laudable examples of a publicly funded higher education institution ‘getting it right’ by providing affordable online degrees to working adults.”

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“NEW YORK — It is generally true that you get what you pay for, but not necessarily when it comes to higher education.

“A new study scheduled for release Monday about the value of a college education, at least when it comes to the basics, has found the opposite to be true in most cases. Forget Harvard and think Lamar.”

Those words in the Washington Post this weekend by staffer Kathleen Parker, seemed to take Lamar University by surprise. Not that it isn’t true. It’s more that it was part of any publicity campaign.

Thus, Lamar Unversity’s string of accolades keeps building. At the Fall Convocation, Monday, Lamar President Dr. Jimmy Simmons missed the pleasure of being the first to call attention to the article, as he was introducing new Texas State University  System Chancellor Dr. Brian McCall and Chair of the Senate Education and Higher Education Committees, State Senator Dan Patrick.   Both were please with the national attention that Lamar received and noted it was deserved and to the point.

In case you missed it, don’t let us spoil your fun in reading the story.

The study to which the story refers is at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni site  — a non-profit trying to cut through the hype “to help parents and students determine where they might get the best bang for their buck.”

Dr. Simmons, announcing the Lamar would probably have more than 14,000 students this fall after registration ends, and will have the most on campus students ever, jokingly speculated on what a story such as this, syndicated in hundreds of newspapers across the country might do to future enrollments. 

Wait, maybe he wasn’t joking.