PHOENIX — Starbucks and Arizona State University announced this week that a two-year free college education program for Starbucks employees will be expanded to cover all four years of a bachelor’s degree.
The partnership, called the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, was launched last June amid a flurry of nationwide attention with Starbucks agreeing to reimburse employees for their junior and senior years of college.
The program gives employees who work at least 20 hours a week the opportunity to get their tuition reimbursed for completing college credits through ASU’s online-only program.
There is no requirement that employees repay or stay on with the company after graduation. Nearly 2,000 Starbucks employees have enrolled so far in ASU Online.
Funding for the tuition program comes from Starbucks and federal grants administered through ASU, such as Pell Grants. Pells are annual awards based on financial need that don’t have to be paid back.
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The program has been lauded by employees but also criticized by some observers for restricting employees to a single university.
The program initially also required employees to complete 21 credit hours — the equivalent of about seven college courses — before they could be reimbursed. The company now says employees can get reimbursed faster, at the end of each semester.
Starbucks Chairman and CEO Howard Schultz said company officials talked with “a number of universities” and chose ASU because of its reputation and ability to handle an influx of online students.
ASU Online has grown quickly in size and reputation over the past few years with 13,000 students enrolled fully online, most of them undergraduates. The university’s online bachelor’s degree programs were ranked No. 8, tied with Ohio State University, in the most recent evaluation by U.S. News & World Report. The survey evaluated nearly 300 schools.
Starbucks employees can choose from 49 online degrees through ASU. The company has set a goal of at least 25,000 graduates by 2025.