Southeast Community College graduates will have a guaranteed route into the University of Nebraska–Lincoln under a new partnership designed to reduce lost credits, clarify degree requirements and help students finish their bachelor’s degrees.
The institutions announced On Course Friday at SCC’s Lincoln Campus. The agreement includes more than 50 pathways mapped course by course and guarantees UNL admission without competitive review for students who earn an SCC associate degree with at least a 2.0 grade point average. It applies to technical and applied degrees as well as academic transfer degrees.
Seth Meranda, SCC’s chief marketing and communications officer, tells KLIN News the pathways will give students a clearer understanding of what they need to take before transferring. “They’ll know which courses transfer, which ones move over, what they need, so that they can complete both their associate’s degree and their bachelor’s degree in the same amount of time it would take them to do their bachelor’s degree,” Meranda said.
The admission guarantee applies to UNL as an institution and does not automatically guarantee entry into every major. Tony Lazarowicz, SCC’s administrative director for transfer initiatives, said some programs have additional GPA requirements or separate application processes. Those requirements will be identified in the pathway documents so students can plan ahead. “The guarantee is tied to institutional admission, not to necessarily a specific major,” Lazarowicz said. “For majors that may have different or additional requirements, they would still be required to fulfill those.”
Each pathway identifies the destination degree, required courses and expected completion time. The institutions say pathways requiring more than two additional years at UNL will make that clear upfront. Programs span fields including agriculture, business, engineering, education, journalism, arts and sciences, and criminal justice.
Lazarowicz pointed to students earning an associate of applied science in law enforcement as one example of those who could follow a mapped route to a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. He said the goal is also to help students attending part time understand how their coursework applies toward graduation.
The partnership grew from curriculum planning that began in July 2025, when nearly 100 faculty members, staff and administrators from both institutions met to align programs. All nine UNL colleges participated, and the institutions have committed to reviewing and updating the pathways annually.
According to the announcement, approximately 2,500 SCC students identify transferring to a four-year institution as their goal. Over the past three years, 475 SCC students enrolled at UNL. “Those two numbers should be closer together than they are,” SCC President Paul Illich said in the announcement. “A student who is ready for a bachelor’s degree should not lose that degree somewhere between two institutions that both want them to finish it.”
Advising teams at SCC and UNL will share resources, and UNL advisors already maintain a regular presence on SCC campuses. Lazarowicz said students who authorize the institutions to share their information can begin connecting with UNL admissions staff and advisors during their first semester at SCC. “Rather than a student waiting until, say, their last semester at Southeast to get that connection to UNL, we’re going to already have that connection started from the time they start at Southeast in their first semester,” he said.
SCC also announced a Presidential Scholarship covering full tuition and fees at SCC for high-achieving students pursuing an On Course pathway. The first class begins in spring 2027, with leadership development and transfer preparation included. Lazarowicz said SCC anticipates an initial group of approximately 10 to 20 recipients, depending on funding.
Current SCC students can declare an On Course pathway with a transfer advisor. Prospective students can begin by applying to SCC and telling an advisor they intend to complete a bachelor’s degree at UNL.
Pathway documents, course sequences, GPA requirements and advising contacts are available on SCC’s On Course website.
