Extended Studies Quarterly Newsletter | | Volume 5, Issue 1 | September 2026 | Extended Studies and College of Education | | The College of Education transforms education for good by preparing educators and leaders, strengthening schools and communities, opening doors to higher education, and helping address the evolving needs of Maryland's workforce. | | Through its partnership with Extended Studies, the college’s expertise reaches people at every stage of learning—from high school students and undergraduates to working professionals, early childhood educators, and students pursuing inclusive postsecondary pathways. Extended Studies provides the administrative and financial infrastructure that helps turn the college’s vision into educational opportunities that strengthen lives, professions, and communities. | Across the Learner Journey | | Strengthening Pathways from High School to College | | |
This summer, the College of Education partnered with Extended Studies to expand the Terp Young Scholars experience through ExploreEd, a four-day afternoon series designed to help rising high school seniors turn their early exposure to university life into a clearer path toward college. ExploreEd gave participants opportunities to meet current College of Education students, explore careers and college majors, and build practical skills for navigating the college admissions process, such as writing a college essay, reviewing the college application, and developing an application action plan.
In addition to ExploreEd, the College of Education piloted a new course this summer. In TLPL188A: Wordsmith: Level Up Your Writing! students built confidence and skills as writers by exploring different writing styles. Learners had the opportunity to experience UMD, explore their futures, and prepare for what comes next.
| | Expanding Access to the College Experience | | |
TerpsEXCEED gives students with intellectual disabilities access to academics, internships, career preparation, and university life. Graduates earn a College and Career Studies Certificate through Extended Studies.
The next phase of the partnership between the College of Education and Extended Studies will explore future pathways that connect students with UMD coursework, industry-recognized credentials, and workforce experiences.
| | Supporting Incoming Freshmen | Freshmen Connection provides spring-admitted Terps with the opportunity to live on campus in the fall and begin building belonging and momentum towards their UMD undergraduate degree. Over the past decade, the College of Education has offered 36 courses to Freshmen Connection students. 482 Education majors got their start in Freshmen Connection since the program’s inception in 2006. | | Accelerating Time to Degree Completion | The College of Education offers courses in both the university’s Summer Session and Winter Session. In 2025, 272 students took advantage of Summer Session and 125 enrolled in courses during Winter Session to make progress toward their degree or create flexibility in their fall and spring schedules to explore possibilities or make room for internships, electives or other experiential learning opportunities. | Scaling Graduate Education | Professional graduate education is one of the largest areas of collaboration between the College of Education and Extended Studies. In 2024-25, 796 students filled 1,327 seats across 204 sections in Extended Studies-supported graduate programs spanning educational leadership, curriculum and instruction, special education, STEM education, TESOL, and related fields. | | Transforming Faculty Expertise into Workforce Development | | |
Through the Center for Early Childhood Education and Intervention, the College of Education partnered with Downtown Baltimore Child Care, Inc. to deliver the Maryland Early EdCorp Child Development Association Registered Apprenticeship Program. The non-credit program combines instruction, on-the-job learning, mentoring, portfolio development, and preparation for the Child Development Associate credential.
Extended Studies provides the agreement framework and financial administration for the program while the College of Education shares its expertise with professionals already shaping the lives of Maryland children and families.
| | What Our Partnership Makes Possible | | |
Providing academic opportunities: Bringing courses, curricula, and faculty expertise to learners through summer, winter, graduate, pre-college, and professional learning.
Opening new doors: Creating meaningful pathways for high school, non-degree, professional, and traditionally underserved learners.
Serving Maryland in new ways: Translating faculty expertise into workforce education and partnerships that respond to real community and school district needs.
Extending the reach of the University of Maryland: The College of Education leads the academic vision. Extended Studies helps build the pathways. Together, we extend the reach and impact of a Maryland education.
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Jessica Atkins
Business Manager, Finance
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Jessica joined Extended Studies in January 2026. Her current portfolio includes BMGT, EDUC, ENGR, INFO, and PLCY. Prior to working at University of Maryland, she spent three years on the University of Missouri’s payroll team and three years as a preschool teacher. She earned her B.A. in Sociology from the University of Missouri and her M.S. in Early Childhood and Family Development from Missouri State University. Jessica’s professional background includes payroll reconciliations, tax reporting, and human resources.
| | | Webinar: Summer Session 2026 Recap and 2027 Scheduling | |
We will review Summer 2026 enrollment results and outreach efforts, share updates on Terp Young Scholars and Winter Session, and discuss key deadlines, requirements, and practical guidance for scheduling Summer 2027 courses.
Campus leaders and colleagues are invited to join this webinar on Thursday, September 17, 2026, from 2–3:30 p.m. Please register for the webinar and share this invitation with colleagues involved in course planning, scheduling, enrollment, or student outreach.
| | The UMD Global Career Accelerator | The UMD Global Career Accelerator, offered in collaboration with Podium Education, launched as part of Summer Session 2026. The inaugural summer courses enrolled 208 students. Over ten weeks, students of all majors gained real-world experience preparing for careers in a variety of industries. Read more on Maryland Today. | |
Program Updates & Reminders | | |
Winter Session 2026 saw a 3% increase in enrollments over the previous year. Over 95% of registrants are current University of Maryland students and most courses are offered online.
Winter Session 2027 registration opens October 20. For information on scheduling a Winter Session course at this time, contact winter-sched@umd.edu. Visit our administrative website for additional information.
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Summer Session 2026 saw an increase in enrollments by 60 seats over the previous year. Total seats were 15,859, the highest since COVID and the second-highest Summer Session enrollment in the last 20 years.
Summer Session scheduling instructions are available on the Extended Studies administrative website. Online scheduling in SIS opens on September 8. The deadline to complete online course scheduling is October 20. After this date, all scheduling updates must be submitted via email to summer-sched@umd.edu.
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Freshmen Connection currently has 1,062 students enrolled for Fall 2026, an increase of nine students from 2025.
Courses in Freshmen Connection typically roll over from year to year. Academic units interested in proposing new courses or adjusting existing courses for Fall 2027 should reach out to fc@umd.edu before the end of October.
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Terp Young Scholars 2026 saw a 61% increase in enrollments, with 669 high school students participating in 32 courses. 414 students took campus courses, and 255 enrolled in online courses.
The Terp Young Scholars Course Proposal Form is open through October 1. If you are a new unit interested in proposing a course for Summer 2027, contact TYS staff at tys@umd.edu.
| | Extended Studies is assisting with the launch of the College of Education’s first undergraduate program at the Universities at Shady Grove. Middle School Math and Science Education is planned to launch in Spring 2028. | | Professional Graduate Programs | | Career Widgets powered by Lightcast are now live on the Extended Studies website's program overview web pages (Education Leadership Programs example). The widgets display career pathways that can be customized from approximately 900 occupation categories. | | New Graduate Application Fee Waiver Pilot: Extended Studies has launched a pilot initiative to help programs strengthen spring and summer graduate enrollment. Each Extended Studies-administered graduate program—defined by major code—may request up to 25 application fee waivers for prospective spring or summer applicants. Contact exst@umd.edu for additional details. | | Graduate Enrollment and Applications |
- Summer Session 2026 seat count remained flat compared to 2025.
- The Fall 2026 seat count is down 17% compared to Fall 2025.
- Fall 2026 applications are down 35% compared to Fall 2025.
- Four of the five strongest application months for Fall 2026 aligned with the Extended Studies graduate programs marketing campaign that was live from October 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.
| | Program Marketing Opportunity with EAB: To help counter the impacts of this year’s enrollment trends, Extended Studies is proposing a program-level marketing opportunity in partnership with marketing agency EAB, costing participating programs $5,000, after a $10,000 Extended Studies subsidy. Extended Studies will subsidize up to 15 programs. Participation is optional, but EAB requires at least 10 programs to establish a partnership. | | Faster Revenue Distribution: Units that complete all instructor appointments on time will receive their distributable revenue 45–60 days after a schedule adjustment, reducing the current revenue distribution timeline by roughly four to five months. | | New Offerings: New releases this fall will expand UMD’s MOOC portfolio, including a Geospatial Intelligence offering from the Department of Geographical Sciences. The offering marks the department's first time participating in the MOOC program. | Coursera Platform Fee: Coursera’s new 15% fee on institutional earnings was introduced to support expanded marketing. Despite the fee, overall UMD MOOC revenue declined by less than 3%, as units launched new offerings and strengthened portfolio performance. | | Meet with Extended Studies | | Let us know if you would like to discuss opportunities for self-support programs. Submit an EXST Meeting Request if you are interested in speaking with us. | | Extended Studies has completed the Summer Session 2026 payroll cycle. If there are any Summer Session positions that EXST processed which you have questions or concerns about, please contact the EXST Finance Team directly at exst-finance@umd.edu for further assistance. | | Extended Studies continues to review and approve all Fall 2026 budgets, generate instructional contracts, and build jobs in the Workday HCM system as soon as required documentation is received. The Finance Team will contact each department's business office directly regarding jobs that require immediate action. | | Winter 2026-27 and Spring 2027 Budgets | The Winter 2026-27 and Spring 2027 budget cycles began on September 1, 2026. Separate instructions were sent out by the EXST Finance Team to all Budget Creators, Department-level Budget Approvers, and College-level Budget Approvers on September 1 to provide deadlines and guidance for entering all course budget details and notes. We encourage all department Budget Creators to enter and route their course budgets as soon as their course schedules are verified, so that the budget approval process can be completed sooner. Budget approvals and instructional contract generation for Winter courses will begin at the end of October and for Spring courses in the middle of November. The budgeting, contracting, and payroll processes for both Winter and Spring budget cycles will continue through the end of 2026. | | Contingent Worker Guidance | | |
Academic units should refer to the university’s Workday resources for guidance on creating and managing contingent workers:
| | Enrollment and Academic Operations Updates | | To better reflect the breadth and strategic nature of our work, Student and Program Services has officially been renamed Enrollment and Academic Operations. As Extended Studies has grown, so have the team’s responsibilities, which now include admissions, enrollment, registration, scheduling, academic systems, reporting, data, and operational support for programs across the university. The new name more accurately represents the role the team plays in supporting students, faculty, staff, and academic partners. | | New Post-Baccalaureate in Fire Protection Engineering | The application for the new Fire Protection Engineering Post-Baccalaureate Program is now available. Professionals moving into fire protection responsibilities, students preparing for graduate study, and engineers seeking targeted coursework in this specialized field can begin the application process through the Extended Studies application portal. We are excited to support this new program and look forward to welcoming applicants for the upcoming spring term. | | Marketing and Communications Resources | | | | |
