Agreement Paves Way for Camden County College Students to Rutgers-Camden

Camden County Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. hopes an agreement reached between Camden County College and Rutgers-University Camden will slow the matriculation of students who annually leave the state to attend four-year colleges.

Students who earn their associate’s degree from Camden County College will now automatically be accepted to Rutgers University-Camden, according to the agreement announced Monday afternoon.

The agreement also allows any student from any of the eight South Jersey counties – Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Ocean and Salem – who applies to Rutgers University–Camden for freshman-year admission and is denied acceptance to gain conditional acceptance if they subsequently enroll at Camden County College.

Currently, about 34,000 students leave the state annually to attend a four-year college. This this is the highest number of students to relocate in the nation creating a brain drain in New Jersey, Cappelli said.

“I believe this partnership will help us stem that tide of students leaving New Jersey,” Cappelli said. “As a Rutgers Law graduate I know the journey towards a degree is long and arduous, but this partnership will simplify the process and streamline the road ahead for students.”

Students who earn their associate’s degree while maintaining a 2.0 average at Camden County College will now have the opportunity to gain admission to Rutgers University-Camden to earn a four-year degree.

“This marks the start of a valuable new opportunity for Camden County College students and anyone looking to achieve the goal of a bachelor’s degree,” Camden County Freeholder Ian Leonard, liaison to Camden County College, said. “Our reinforced partnership with Rutgers University will make attending Camden County College one of the smartest and fiscally prudent decisions you can make to achieve a degree.”

“This agreement is redefining higher education by making a bachelor’s degree from our state university more attainable for the masses,” Capelli said. “Providing all Camden County College students with an affordable option to achieve a bachelor’s degree, will create a better workforce for South Jersey and a stronger economic engine for the state.”

Previously enacted agreements between the two institutions include bachelor’s degree-completion programs in business administration, liberal studies and psychology.

They also include conditional acceptance agreements for Camden County College students who want to transfer seamlessly into Rutgers–Camden’s College of Arts and Sciences or School of Business and for international students who want to attend Camden County College before transferring to Rutgers–Camden as well as a number of articulation agreements and facility-sharing contracts.

“Rutgers–Camden is here for the citizens of Camden County and South Jersey,” Phoebe Haddon, Chancellor of Rutgers University–Camden, said. “We’re proud to celebrate these new steps in our partnership with Camden County College which will make it easier for South Jersey residents to earn a Rutgers degree so that they can advance their lives and their careers. That’s what we’re all here for.”

Camden County College also has offers a bachelor of science in nursing degree program on its Gloucester Township Campus in cooperation with the Rutgers College of Nursing, Newark and New Brunswick.