About Us
Our Impact
We intentionally work in early-stage innovation because that’s where we believe we can have the most influence. Our work addresses core challenges in education by examining, building, and enabling innovative solutions.
In the first 25 years, WGU reinvented the institution of higher education and created a totally unique model. In the next 25 years, we endeavor to recreate the system. WGU Labs is part of WGU's strategy to re-invigorate the promise of education for not only students at WGU but everyone across the sector.
Entry points to higher education unnecessarily limit access for individuals who do not match the historic student profile. We remove barriers to access for students who are furthest from opportunity and increase cost transparency to alleviate financial burdens.
High-quality education is not well-defined, varies widely, and fails to harness what is known about the science of learning. We redesign the current learning experience to better diversify instruction and adopt updated learning principles.
The transition from learning to work is often opaque to students and employers. We build systems of lifelong learning that support successful careers.
At WGU, our mission is to change lives for the better by creating pathways to opportunity. Making opportunity available for everyone requires a collective, comprehensive effort, and improving the quality, accessibility, and outcomes of higher education compels all of us to do more. While we have long endeavored to reinvent the institution of higher ed, we also believe in enabling and advancing innovation that will help transform the system of higher education, and reinvigorate the promise of education as the surest path to opportunity...for everyone.
Our expanded vision has WGU—the university—at its core, not only delivering results for our students, but also providing the primary, data-driven proving ground for ideas and strategies to continually reinvent education and increase outcomes. To this core, we have added a collaborative research vehicle and investment flexibility to extend WGU’s engagement across the sector. Combined, this creates for us a foundation for enabling the incubation, launch, and scaling of new endeavors that hold the promise of removing barriers to access, and improving quality and outcomes throughout the education-to-opportunity lifecycle.
