Cooperative Education

Cooperative Education (co-op) is an academic program that enables students to gain degree-related experience prior to graduation. It is a planned, progressive educational strategy in which the student obtains work experience related to his or her academic major and career goals. Participating students earn academic credit for their work experiences and are always paid by their employers. Co-op students can maintain their status as full-time students while participating in the program, even if their co-op experience requires they spend a semester working full-time. Walton College of Business Administration students are eligible for co-op credit if they have (1) completed the pre-business core and have obtained at least 60 hours of credit, (2) a cumulative grade point average of 2.25 or better, and (3) a grade point average of 2.5 or better for the previous term completed. Students may receive one hour of credit per semester for a job that requires 12-19 hours of work per week or two hours of credit per semester for jobs that require 20 or more hours per week for a maximum of 6 hours of degree credit.

Students may seek either to qualify a job they have found themselves for co-op credit, or they may seek an employment opportunity through Career Services, 411 Arkansas Union. The employment opportunity may be either a full-time, off-campus work assignment that alternates with semesters spent on campus taking courses (an alternating co-op), or it may be a part-time job undertaken concurrently with course work (a parallel co-op). Once a student has been matched with an approved job, the co-op coordinator, the faculty co-op adviser, the student's work place supervisor, and the student work together to formulate career-related learning objectives for the coming semester of work. At the end of each semester of work, the student is required to submit a three- to five-page paper that re-states the student's learning objectives for the semester and discusses how the job experience fulfilled the objectives. The student is also required to submit an employer evaluation form, and the work supervisor is asked to submit an evaluation of the student's work.

For information on participating in the Walton College of Business Administration co-op program, a current listing of co-op opportunities, and phone numbers of people with whom you may discuss these opportunities, visit the Cooperative Education home page at http://www.uark.edu/depts/coopinfo/ busipart.html/.