After two years of negotiations, last month Bucks County Community College finally announced its first international partnership with Wales’ Wrexham University, offering Business majors the opportunity of earning degrees within a short amount of time while letting them enrich themselves abroad.
“It’s more than a transfer agreement – it’s a transformational experience,” Bucks County Community College President & CEO Patrick Jones says in the initial press release, “Our students gain access to a high-quality international education at a fraction of the cost of many U.S. institutions, while immersing themselves in Welsh culture and gaining a global perspective.”
The program itself primarily functions as a transfer agreement for students who graduate Bucks with a business administration degree and seek further education by transferring to Wrexham.
In addition, those partaking in the program also have the opportunity to stay a fourth year to receive an accelerated MBA – therefore, completing their graduate degree.
Indeed, one of the individuals involved within the program from its genesis is none other than Greg Luce, the Dean of School of Business, Innovation, and Legal Studies here at Bucks.
“It’s a little crazy,” he remarks regarding how the whole program came into fruition.
To elaborate on this, about two years ago, Bucks’ Continuing Education Division’s Vice President Workforce and Strategic Partnerships, Tracy Timby, read an article about the impact brought on by the success of “Welcome to Wrexham” and how because of it, Wrexham University had sought for potential international partnerships.
Soon proceeding to send a LinkedIn message to a representative from the institution, this initiated two years worth of conversations between both schools which culminated in last month’s announcement.
Though only open for graduating Bucks students with a business degree as of this writing, the plan is to gradually expand to include other degrees “where there is a strong connection between Bucks and Wrexham”. For example, Luce states that Wrexham has a “really strong arts program,” suggesting the possibility of the deal including Arts major students in the near future.
According to Luce, universities in the U.K. typically enroll full-time students for three years, unlike here in the U.S. whose bachelor’s degree programs take four years. Thus, as most Bucks students have already acquired two years of credits, they will only have to study abroad for one year.
Going on to mention the tuition of the school, Luce states how “cost-saving [Wrexham is] for students,” with its tuition being comparable to schools within the greater Philadelphia area such as Temple University, though unlike Temple, “it can be completed in one year”, he states.
As the program is relatively new, not many students are aware of its existence. “The plan is to have the first Bucks student at Wrexham by Fall 2026,” Luce states. Despite this, there have already been some that have expressed interested – with Luce himself arranging session meetings with them.
“I’m super excited about it,” says Luce, who hopes further word of the partnership reaches another multitude of students.