The University of Wisconsin System will strive to increase its graduates by 30 percent in the next 15 years, a plan that will be presented at the Board of Regents meeting in Fond du Lac today.

As part of the UW System Growth Planning Agenda, the system announced April 5 they would increase degree holders by 80,000 by 2025 in two and four year colleges and universities across the system.

UW System President Kevin Reilly will formally present the goal and discuss plans during the Board of Regents meeting later this week.

UW System spokesperson David Giroux said the goal of 80,000 more graduates would not come solely from increasing enrollment, but from giving students the resources they need to finish their degree or get back on track to finish their education.

If the degree-holder target is met, not only will it be a milestone for the UW System; it would increase economic vitality for the state of Wisconsin.

“We obviously need to have a higher percentage of degree holders in this state to help us get to where the state of Wisconsin ought to go,” Board of Regents Chair Charles Pruitt said.

According to a UW System statement, a higher level of education completed correlates with higher annual earnings.

Giroux said it is not enough to increase the number of college graduates in the state of Wisconsin, but it is also necessary to create jobs for those graduates.

He added generating graduates is linked directly with creating jobs: There should not be graduates without jobs, but jobs cannot be filled unless there are qualified graduates.

Jobs can be generated in the state of Wisconsin by university-conducted research. Every college and university in the UW System has the capacity to generate those types of jobs, Giroux said.

He highlighted the complexity that comes with increasing graduates. There is another element to producing graduates and jobs: Maintaining quality faculty and staff on each campus.

There are no concrete plans yet for how the system’s goals will be achieved, but Giroux said how each campus would generate more degree holders will vary.

“There’s no cookie cutter solution here,” Giroux said.

While there are no definitive plans as to how UW System would meet their goals on each campus, Giroux said the system would work with their partners in K-12 education to make sure students are prepared when they continue postsecondary education.

As specific plans are developed as to how the system will meet their goal, there would be a need for funds, although Giroux did not have a specific number as to how much any program to increase graduates would cost.

There can be neither an increase in graduates nor in jobs if there is no support from the state of Wisconsin, Pruitt said. However, state support is not the only place from which the UW System would get resources to reach its goal.

The Growth Planning Agenda did not receive any funding from the state in the last biennium budget, a product of tough economic times, Pruitt said.

Pruitt said UW System is already working on crafting the proposal for the next biennium budget and will finalize it in the August Board of Regents meeting.