Starting this fall, UAB will offer a business management bachelor’s degree through the Jefferson State Shelby-Hoover campus.

The four-year university will also offer an early childhood education degree at the Jefferson campus.

Jeff State Dean of Instruction Anita Norton said UAB wanted to offer the degrees to tap into the population of Jeff State students that are unable to travel to UAB.

“I believe that the reason is that UAB recognizes that community colleges are really good fits for continuing education,” Norton said. “We have really outstanding students who are with us for a wide variety of reasons, who are very capable of doing well on a four-year college level.”

Norton said UAB chose the Shelby campus to offer the business degree because of the incredible growth in the Shelby County area.

Once students graduate with an applied sciences degree from Jeff State, they can apply to UAB. Once accepted at UAB, they will have all the privileges afforded UAB students, such as parking passes and e-mail addresses, and tuition will be paid to UAB.

Norton said UAB professors would teach the courses, either by actually being in the classrooms or through videoconferencing. Internet courses will also be available later. This fall, four courses will be available at the Shelby campus.

As time goes on, Jeff State hopes to be able to offer more areas of study for bachelor’s degrees, Norton said.

“We are open to as many students as want to take advantage of it,” she said. “We anticipate that we may offer additional degrees in the future.”