Government Accredited Online Colleges in North Dakota

As one of the least populated states in the United States, North Dakota ranks 48th in the nation when it comes to population density in the state. Students who live in some of the more remote parts of the state will find greater convenience with distance learning since traditional learning in higher education may not otherwise be easily accessible. Private colleges were the first ones in North Dakota to provide online degrees that could be earned at home, but the public schools are beginning to get on board with the idea as well. By last year, eight of the 29 public universities in North Dakota offered options for an online degree.

Between the years of 2008 and 2014, there were only two states in the entire country that elected to increase the budget for higher education rather than decrease it, and North Dakota was one of them. During this period, the state opted to spend 38.6 percent more on higher education.

The extra budget has done wonders to help mitigate the rise of tuition costs; whereas the national average for tuition cost increase since 2008 is over 25 percent, North Dakota managed to keep it to just 12 percent at four year schools. Two year schools, in fact, only saw an increase of 11 percent between the years of 2004 and 2014.

At the same time, rates of enrollment increased by a nice 13 percent for public universities. At the six largest universities in the state, the graduation rate stated around 40 percent.