Bethel University guarantees unemployed grads free grad school or a job at the school

Bethel University announced on Monday a new commitment to helping alumni find jobs after they graduate — offering free graduate school classes or a job at the school if former students aren’t employed in six months.

The private, Christian school in Arden Hills will start the “Bethel Career Commitment” in the spring, likely the first college or university in Minnesota to create such a guarantee.

It’s part of a broader focus on career readiness that started several years ago and is now embedded into students’ general education courses, from writing résumés to practicing interviewing skills, officials said.

“We’ve learned through a lot of aggressive investment ... what really works,” Bethel University President Ross Allen said. “This is really coming alongside them and helping them ensure that they’re doing all the things to get [a job].”

Alumni will either receive a temporary position or eight free credits of graduate school somewhere at Bethel if they can’t land a job by winter. The graduate program must be one that’s open to the general population and has no prerequisites, such as the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree, Allen said.

The guarantee comes amid assertions by 2025 college graduates that jobs are hard to come by, though the national unemployment rate for recent graduates in early August was about 5%, about one percentage point higher than for the general population.

“Part of it is, you want somebody to keep busy, right?” Allen said. “It’s not a permanent long-term solution, but it’s certainly a bridge to help you continue to get that job.”

“We’re very proud of that,” Allen said.

A handful of universities across the U.S. offer something similar, but each school does things a bit differently with their promise and none of them are highly recognizable institutions, he said.

The school launched an initiative related to finding a career path earlier this year with “The Studio for Vocation and Calling.”

Last September, Bethel debuted a tuition cut that lowered the undergraduate sticker price to $26,000, or about $18,000 less than its previous cost. Because of scholarships and other aid, that new price reflected what most students would have already paid.

Students must still pay for room and board, which this year runs about $13,100.

The two changes are an acknowledgment of “the two highest concerns people have” about going to college, he said.