UConn’s engineering school offers 65% discount on master's degrees to 2020 grads

Photo | Contributed UConn students collaborating at the school’s recently opened cybersecurity lab located in the Information Technology Engineering Building in Storrs.

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By Sean Teehan

Under a new scholarship, University of Connecticut engineering students graduating this year can earn a master's degree at a 65% discount.

The program is available to the approximately 800 members of the UConn School of Engineering's 2020 graduating class, said Kylene Perras, the school’s director for strategic initiatives and professional education.

Students graduating this month, or after the summer term ending in August, who enter the graduate program would have to complete all 10 courses required for the master's degree in one year, Perras said. The price is usually $3,900 per course, which amounts to $39,000 for the degree. With the scholarship the master’s degree would cost $13,650, amounting to a discount of more than $25,000.

"[The scholarship came from] a discussion of the pandemic and the position our students are in," Perras said, noting that the job market is much weaker than before COVID-19 hit the U.S., and the scholarship enables students to beef up their resumes, while taking time to possibly wait out some of the economic downturn.

Graduating seniors began making inquiries shortly after the School of Engineering announced the scholarship, Perras said.

In addition to helping students with a more affordable post-graduate degree, Perras said UConn stands to benefit, too, since the program could keep up enrollment numbers during an economic downturn that could lead people to rethink plans to shell out money for a degree.

"I think it's certainly mutually beneficial," Perras said. "It absolutely is helpful to see students continue to be enrolled."

UConn, like universities across the country, is going through some pandemic-related financial difficulties itself.

University President Thomas Katsouleas last week told the board of trustees the university could lose up to $121.6 million next fall semester if its campuses remain largely closed amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Courses at UConn moved online in March, but Katsouleas this week said the administration will come to a decision by June 30, on whether UConn's four campuses in Storrs, Stamford, Hartford and Avery Point will open in the fall.