BOZEMAN – Students attending Montana State University campuses in Bozeman, Havre, Great Falls and Billings will have an easier time transferring, enrolling between campuses and finding courses to help complete their degrees thanks to an initiative launching this fall.

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Seamless OneMSU is designed to reduce paperwork, streamline transactions for undergraduate students and help the four Montana State University campuses work together to better serve students, said Tony Campeau, registrar at MSU in Bozeman.

Campeau said the idea is that a student, for example, could be registered in Billings, see an online class they need in Great Falls and be able to easily register for that class.

“We recognize that not all students proceed on a straight line to graduation,” Campeau said. “Seamless OneMSU acknowledges that students do sometimes attend multiple institutions on their path to graduation, and we want to serve those students better and give them more access to unique offerings at our institutions across Montana.”

The Seamless OneMSU initiative will provide a single webpage and consistent informational resources for students, whether they are enrolled at Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls or Havre. Students will fill out one form that will set the necessary paperwork and records transfers in motion.

“This initiative provides students greater choice and accessibility to a larger selection of courses than can possibly be offered at a single campus,” said Bob Mokwa, MSU’s executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. “This will help students stay on track to graduate in their chosen majors with seamless access to quality programs taught by experienced faculty, regardless of the students’ home campus.”

“We’ve taken what has been a four-to-six-week, multiple-form process that students used to have to negotiate for each individual campus and created one form and a standard processes so students can more easily get the classes they need,” Campeau said.

Campeau noted that Montana University System students normally do not pay for course credits beyond their first 12 per semester, but that is counted at each campus. If a student enrolled in multiple MSU campuses, they’d receive a bill from each, he explained.

The Seamless MSU initiative builds on a long commitment by the Montana Board of Regents and the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education to facilitate student transfers, a commitment that has included common course numbering among the state’s campuses, which ensures credits transfer between institutions.

“This is a great example of what can be accomplished when staff and faculty from different campuses roll up their sleeves and work collaboratively to streamline complex admissions and registration processes,” Mokwa said. “The team never wavered in doing what is best for our students.”

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