Allan Hancock College is one of two colleges recently awarded the prestigious 2023 American Council on Education (ACE)/Fidelity Investments Award for Institutional Transformation.

The award was created to recognize institutions that responded to challenges in higher education in innovative and creative ways. Hancock was presented the award and a $10,000 prize at ACE’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Texas Women’s College also received an award at the event.

“Allan Hancock College and Texas Woman’s University serve as excellent examples of the efforts our institutions are undertaking to increase access to higher education and meet the needs of an ever-more diverse student body,” said Ted Mitchell, ACE president.

Hancock was honored for its Credit Where Credit’s Due automated degree-awarding program. Multiple departments across the college worked to develop and deploy an algorithm that leverages data already collected by Hancock to identify students who are near degree completion — or in some cases have already completed their degrees — and automatically award them degrees and certificates without the students needing to initiate an application for graduation.

In the first year of the program, 1,144 Hancock students received a total of 2,849 degrees and/or certificates through the automated program and total degree earners increased by 22 percent.

Over the first two years of the program, 64 percent of all auto-awarded degrees or certificates went to students from Hispanic, African American, and other traditionally underrepresented ethnic groups.

“The Credit Where Credit’s Due program reminds us that relatively simple shifts in procedures can eradicate barriers with significant, life-changing outcomes for students,” said Kevin G. Walthers, Hancock’s superintendent/president.

“This is just one example of how our college departments are working together and changing the odds for our students,” Walthers said.