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About Reach

A new era in higher education

Reach is the nation's only nonprofit accredited university fully dedicated to championing the Apprenticeship Degree — an affordable path for working adults to gain a university education and degree.

AboutReach_HeroV3

Get to know Reach University


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Our vision

Nobody should be forced to choose between a job and a degree. We envision a world where everyone everywhere has access to fully job-embedded higher education, so that skill and effort—not money or connections—are what it takes to get ahead.

How we get there

Reach University puts innovation to work. We seek to advance the efficacy and adoption of inquiry-based instructional methods and job-embedded degree pathways in higher education. This work starts with helping schools recruit and train highly effective teachers and leaders.

What we do

We’re breaking the mold to demonstrate that the Apprenticeship Degree can address crucial skill shortages in a variety of fields, reduce the cost of higher education, and expand opportunity.

The Reach Method

To overcome obstacles that commonly impede adult learners, Reach employs a unique approach. We call it the Reach Method. Each of our degree and certificate programs is designed to meet the following five standards.


Efficiency
Efficiency

Half of the learning comes from what learners already do in their full-time job.

Online
Flexibility

Online Oxford-style seminars are held after work hours on nights and weekends.

Work
Relevance & Applicability 

Learning is relentlessly tailored to the workplace, with theory linked to practice throughout.

Save Money
Affordability

Learners are paid to earn a degree or certificate and take on zero student debt.

Nurture
Professional Capital 

Learners advance into a job in their community; employers build a “grow-your-own” pipeline.

We’re just getting started

Reach University emerged in 2020 as a new kind of higher education institution. We set out to pioneer the Apprenticeship Degree in the United States and address the teacher shortage.

Today, our faculty has grown to over 100 job-embedded professors of practice, and our programs have expanded from California to six additional states — Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Colorado, Texas, and Tennessee — with undergraduate enrollment surging by more than 20x. 

And in 2024, we launched the National Center for the Apprenticeship Degree at Reach to bring about systematic adoption of the Apprenticeship Degree nationwide.


Job
100% job-embedded programs
Enroll_Icon
300+ school partners in the US
Seminar
25:1 student-to-faculty ratio in our seminars
HUMAN DIGNITY & belonging

Committed to the full self-expression of our entire community

We champion human dignity and belonging in all the spaces we occupy. We believe that each person’s value arises not merely as an avatar of group identity – such as class, race, gender, religion, orientation, or origin – but from simply being human. Each individual brings a distinctive background that is grounded in the shared and universal commonality of humanity. In the context of our work at Reach, the pursuit of affordable, accessible, and high-quality education for all individuals that seek it — including those in underserved rural and urban communities — is enshrined in our vision, mission, and institutional learning objectives.

Successful work-and-learn environments require an authentic sense of belonging. This means each individual human being feels valued as part of the larger group. The group – and its diversity – is valued by each individual. Embracing diversity in all its forms is central. Organizations looking to achieve excellence assemble a “dream team” of different, complementary human beings who are more powerful and insightful together than apart. At Reach, we seek in our admissions and hiring to achieve broad representation of the communities we serve. Our approach aims to infuse candidates, faculty, and staff with the belief that they, no matter their identity, truly belong in higher education.

What our team says about Reach University

Being a Reacher means that I'm a changemaker and an innovative thought partner. I work with the most thoughtful, caring, and collaborative colleagues.
Allison Lorens Development Specialist
Reach gives me the opportunity to be a teacher, a motivator, and help folks live out their dream. It also pours into me and fills my cup. I'll be doing this as long as they will have me.
Torrence Willams Faculty Chair, Reach Teachers College
The work that we're doing here at Reach is to address a growing need in our country as quickly and as intentionally as possible.
Spencer Kiper Senior Systems Administrator
Knowing that my mental, physical, and emotional health are just as important as my work health is what really stands out to me.
Mason Lee Hill Admissions Officer
As a first-generation college graduate, I understand that the cost of college goes beyond the dollar amount. Reach bends the model to create a way for all individuals to achieve a college degree.
Ko Kim Vice President, Candidate Affairs

The Reach Report

Explore stories about the impact of Apprenticeship Degrees and job-embedded learning.

USA Today: To solve teacher shortages, schools turn to custodians, bus drivers and aides
Student Stories

USA Today: To solve teacher shortages, schools turn to custodians, bus drivers and aides

MORGAN CITY, La. – "Jenna Gros jangles as she walks the halls of Wyandotte Elementary School in St Mary’s Parish, Louisiana. The dozens of keys she ...
HBS' Managing the Future of Work: Reach's apprenticeship degree model
Podcasts

HBS' Managing the Future of Work: Reach's apprenticeship degree model

Dr. Mallory Dwinal-Palisch, Reach's Chancellor & Craft Education System's CEO, sits down with Joe Fuller, host of Harvard Business School's ...
NYTimes (Archive): Rethinking how to teach the teachers
In the news

NYTimes (Archive): Rethinking how to teach the teachers

The origin story of the Reach University Graduate Institute, then known as Reach Institute for School Leadership, was told in 2007 by The New York ...

Reach is powered by our partnerships, team, and community.

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