More University of Cincinnati students are making more money through UC's nationally ranked co-op program. The numbers tell the story: In the last five years, the number of placements of UC students in co-op rose 23.5 percent, with more than 3,000 UC students placed in 5,258 co-op jobs in the 2007-2008 academic year.
Those students earned a collective $35 million, up 40 percent from five years ago. The average co-op pay is about $14.25 an hour (five years ago, it was $10 an hour), with the best-paid UC co-ops making as much as $32.88.
About 1,500 employers around the world employ UC co-ops this year. This summer, UC students are working, earning and gaining real-world experience in Berlin, London, Moscow, Paris, Tokyo, Venice and Zurich – and even Cincinnati. Cooperative education allows students to alternate quarters or semesters in the classroom with quarters or semesters of paid, professional work related directly to their majors.
UC is the global founder of co-op, having established the practice in 1906 when a UC educator sent 27 engineering students into the mines and mills to see what lessons they could learn from the paid positions he arranged for them. Co-op was so closely associated with UC that for a time, such programs were known as the "Cincinnati Plan."
Writer: David Holthaus
Source: M.B. Reilly, University of Cincinnati
Photo provided. Brianna Frappier, left, of Kolar Design
and current UC co-op student Ren Brown work together on a project.
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