Power Online Success with Scholarships for Online Students

Power Online Success with Scholarships for Online Students

Time, distance and life demands can derail a person’s educational goals. Studying online is the only option for some U of A students, especially those tied to their hometowns by work or family. By reaching students on their terms, online education can help them overcome barriers. Your gift to the W.E. Manning Memorial Scholarship fund can help lift another barrier – cost.

The Manning Scholarship is the only scholarship program focusing on students studying in online undergraduate and graduate U of A degree programs. In the last academic year, 1,246 students earned degrees and certificates after studying online (9,732 in the last 10 years). Most U of A online students work full time in their hometowns across the state. Earning degrees helps them advance their careers or start new ones.

Scholarships

In the 2025-2026 academic year, the Manning Scholarship offered $2,000 scholarships to 35 online students to help pay for the cost of their online degree programs offered by colleges across campus: the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences; the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences; the Graduate School and International Education; the Sam M. Walton College of Business; the College of Education and Health Professions; and the College of Engineering.

W.E. Manning Memorial Scholarship

The U of A Global Campus established the Manning Scholarship in 2018 to honor William Ellis Manning Jr., a leader in continuing and distance education at the U of A. The work Manning and others did in the 1980s and 1990s set the foundation for what has become the Global Campus today. It supports U of A colleges and schools in the development and delivery of online, distance and workforce education programs and courses.