Western Governors University in Salt Lake City and WGU Advancement have announced a $4.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in support of efforts to close equity gaps in postsecondary education.

The R&D for Growth & Equity grant will enable WGU to address the access and attainment gap by gaining a better understanding of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students' interactions with faculty, curriculum, technology, processes, and systems while enrolled at the university and producing equity-centered research designed to benefit the field on a national scale.

The initiative will include five focus projects: identifying moments of impact during the student journey, understanding learner profiles for greater success, increasing awareness of varying student engagement levels, identifying the impact of the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund on students, and researching friction areas throughout the student lifecycle.

"We know a student's chances of success are greatly increased when there's a comprehensive suite of support services in place," said WGU provost and chief academic officer Marni Baker Stein. "From the day they enroll until the day they graduate, WGU students benefit from our personalized, one-on-one approach to support services. Thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's generous grant, we can strengthen and enhance these programs to ensure students have the tools they need to be successful now and after graduation."