Students studying in online degree programs at the U of A must apply by Feb. 15 to be considered for the W.E. Manning Memorial Scholarship to be awarded in the fall of 2023.

The Global Campus asks faculty, advisers, administrators and friends to share this scholarship deadline with students in online programs.

About 25 U of A students in undergraduate or graduate online degree programs can benefit from scholarships of $2,000 per student. Students can apply for funding for more than 40 degree programs offered by the academic colleges and featured on the U of A ONLINE website.

The scholarship committee will give preference to scholarship candidates who demonstrate financial need, academic merit or significant community service. Preference also will be given to Arkansas residents and first-generation higher education students. For scholarship purposes, a student will be defined as a first-generation student if neither parent earned a higher education degree.

The U of A Academic Scholarship Office will announce the awards about 60 days after the Feb. 15 deadline. Scholarships will apply to tuition and fees for the 2023-2024 academic year.

"I think that it's great that there's a scholarship specifically for online students," said Trinity Barnes of Newark, Arkansas, who is earning a bachelor's degree in communication online. "It's really given online students a spotlight and shows that online education is of no lesser value than traditional face-to-face teaching."

Barnes was one of 29 students who were named in Fall 2022 to receive Manning scholarships.

The Global Campus awarded scholarships to four students in 2018, seven students in 2019, 22 in 2020 and 25 in 2021. Scholarships honor the memory of William E. Manning, a passionate U of A educator who joined the Global Campus in 1975 and died in 1993. Manning, who was 51, was director of credit studies, an office that now facilitates U of A Self-Paced Online Courses.

"The W.E. Manning Memorial Scholarship helps online students overcome one of the major barriers to higher education — cost," said Cheryl Murphy, vice provost for distance education and head of the Global Campus. "This is the sixth year in a row to offer our scholarship that specifically benefits students in online degree programs at the University of Arkansas."

The work Manning and others did in the 1980s and 1990s set the foundation for what has become the Global Campus, a service unit dedicated to helping academic colleges develop and deliver high-quality online education and workforce development programs. The Global Campus provides instructional design services, technology services, media services and assistance with marketing, recruiting and strategic academic development.

Scholarship candidates must be enrolled in online degree programs from the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences; the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences; the Sam M. Walton College of Business; the College of Education and Health Professions; the College of Engineering; or the School of Law.

Gifts can be made to the Manning Scholarship fund through the U of A's Online Giving site.