Wichita State University is participating in a massive new effort in which 130 public universities and systems will work together to increase college access, close the achievement gap, and award hundreds of thousands more degrees by 2025.

Provost Rick Muma is leading WSU's participation in the effort.

“WSU's participation in the metropolitan cluster allows us to work with similar institutions on sharing best practices with the goal of improving our own policies and practices in order to increase college access and degree completion,” said Muma.

The participating institutions will work within clusters of four-to-12 institutions as they concurrently implement innovative and effective practices to advance student success on their campuses. Collectively, the institutions enroll three million students, including one million students who receive Pell Grants.

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) is organizing the collaborative effort, known as Powered by Publics: Scaling Student Success.

This represents the largest collaborative effort to improve college access, advance equity and increase college degrees awarded.

In addition to committing to those goals, participating institutions have pledged to share aggregate data demonstrating their progress to help spur lasting change across the higher education sector.