2026 Z-Degree Participants
Supported in part by funding through the State of Minnesota Legislature and Minnesota State, Minnesota State announces its Z-Degree participants for FY26-FY27.
Z-degrees are a complete associate or bachelor’s degree program that exclusively use course resources that are no cost to students such as open educational resources (OER), open textbooks, and library-curated materials.
With these additions, sixteen (16) Minnesota State campuses currently offer Z-degrees and eleven (11) are in process of exploring or implementing Z-degrees.
Exploration
The following four (4) colleges and universities received up to $25,000 to explore Z-degrees on their campuses to prepare a foundation for Z-degree development, such as faculty development, open textbook exploration and review, or building open textbook capacity in the transfer curriculum.
- Dakota County Technical College
- Minnesota State College Southeast
- Southwest Minnesota State University
- Winona State University
Expansion and/or Sustaining
The following nine (9) colleges and universities received up to $50,000 to increase the number and type of courses offered in an existing Z-degree.
- Bemidji State University
- Inver Hills Community College
- Lake Superior College
- Minnesota State Community and Technical College
- Minnesota State University Moorhead
- Minnesota West Community & Technical College
- Normandale Community College
- Northland Community & Technical College
- St. Cloud State University
Learn More
Learn more about Z-degrees and OER at Minnesota State at www.MinnState.edu/OER.
Questions?
Contact Michael Olesen
Interim System Director for Student Success Technologies
Educational Development and Technology, Minnesota State ASA