The University of Virginia's Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies degree-completion program, which features part-time evening classes tailored to working adults, will be offered in the Richmond region starting in fall 2012 through new partnerships with John Tyler and J. Sargeant Reynolds community colleges.

The new partnerships were announced this morning at the Richmond Center of U.Va.'s School of Continuing and Professional Studies in Henrico.

The expansion of the BIS program is part of UVA's efforts to contribute to the "ambitious but critically important" goal of the Virginia Business Higher Education Council's Grow By Degrees campaign [http://www.growbydegrees.org/] - to see the state's colleges and universities award 100,000 additional associate's, bachelor's and graduate degrees by 2025, said Billy Cannaday, the dean of UVA's School of Continuing and Professional Studies.

Offered in Charlottesville since its inception in 1999, the BIS program has expanded to Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads through partnerships with Northern Virginia and Tidewater community colleges. Those expansions have roughly doubled the program's annual enrollment, and during the past decade, nearly 300 students have earned BIS degrees.

The program, Cannaday said, "replicates the UVA undergraduate experience, but with part-time classes. The BIS offers the same rigor, quality, small faculty-student ratios, opportunities for student participation, and builds the same writing and critical thinking skills."

The new partnership with John Tyler and J. Sargeant Reynolds community colleges provides a path for Richmond-area adults to earn a UVA undergraduate degree on a part-time basis, UVA President Teresa Sullivan said.

BIS tuition is adjusted annually. For the current academic year (through summer 2011), in-state tuition is $300 per credit hour, plus a required fee of $188 per term; out-of-state tuition is $1,043 per credit hour, plus a required fee of $246 per term.