Northwest Missouri State University and North Central Missouri College celebrated a new cooperative agreement between the two schools with an official signing ceremony on the Northwest campus on Wednesday, October 24th.


The new agreement to share the costs of a nursing director was approved by Northwest’s Board of Regents on September 13 and North Central’s Board of Trustees on August 28. The cooperative agreement allows the two colleges to share the costs of an employee who will serve as the director of Northwest’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) completion program and a facilitator for NCMC’s nursing program.

In remarks before signing the agreement, Northwest President Dr. John Jasinski and NCMC President Dr. Neil Nuttall emphasized the two school's rich history of collaborating on academic programs and forming partnerships. In addition to partnering on the BSN completion program, the schools have a reverse transfer agreement and articulation agreements for teacher education and agriculture programs.

Recognizing nursing is one of the fastest growing job sectors in the United States, Northwest launched its BSN completion program during the fall of 2009. The program is designed to meet the needs of working professional nurses and all courses associated with the program are offered online. Northwest and NCMC hope that by sharing a nursing director they will grow their programs and begin the path toward accreditation.

North Central Missouri College offers two-year registered nurse programs at both Trenton and Maryville as well as the one-year licensed practical nurse program at Trenton, Maryville, and Bethany.