Utah’s flagship school is now offering academic credit for something that many young Utahns, in particular, already do: Serve a religious mission.
In a surprising announcement Wednesday, the University of Utah announced its new plans to expand what is called “prior learning credit” so students will be able to get class credit for both religious work or humanitarian service, such as through the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps.
It is a major step for the U., which sits just east of the Salt Lake Temple for the state’s predominant religion — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — and has sometimes been seen as being at odds with the faith. But even the church’s sponsored school, Brigham Young University, doesn’t appear to offer the same kind of service credit coming online at the U.
Clark G. Gilbert, the commissioner overseeing church education, including BYU, said in a statement that those who serve Latter-day Saint missions learn “essential skills to have in college.” And he supports those students getting credit based on their service at the U.
The idea comes under the leadership of University of Utah President Taylor Randall, who is also a Latter-day Saint.
“This program allows a student to graduate faster and save money by giving them academic credit for the skill and knowledge they gained while having impact on people,” Randall said in a statement.
In the past, the U. has offered a pathway for students who learn a new language on a religious mission or do other foreign service to get specific language credit, as have many other public universities and colleges in the state.
That’s typically done by through a proficiency test that allows students to show their fluency, get credit and test into a higher-level class if they want to continue studying the language while at school. At the U., students can earn up to 16 credit hours for language that way, paying just $40 per credit hour.
BYU also offers a similar “language challenge exam.”
But the U.’s new initiative goes beyond what any school in the state seems to have offered before. And it will apply to all students who complete any missionary or humanitarian work — not just those who did so in a foreign language.
The U. is still working out some of the specifics. At this point, though, it says students will be able to earn up to 12 credit hours under the plan.
Students’ experience from their service work will be judged on a case-by-case basis. They will need to compile a portfolio that includes an essay about what they learned and then pay $50 for a U. committee to review that.
The committee, made up of U. faculty, will then determine how many credit hours students will get and what classes it will be applied to — either required general education coursework or, depending on their field of study, specific requirements for their major, a spokesperson for the university said. The decisions will be based on the time and scope of service.
The idea, overall, is for the credits awarded to line up with the classes a student would have taken to learn those same skills. It is similar, the spokesperson said, to the credit hours students can earn through Advanced Placement, or AP, tests taken in high school on specific topics, such as American history or English.
“Religious missionary work fosters cultural understanding, global engagement and service-oriented leadership — core educational values that make it a worthy candidate for college credit,” the U. said in a news release.
When can students start earning credits this way?
Students will be able to start submitting their portfolios in fall 2025. And it’s not just limited to those newly enrolled. The U. said it will accept submissions from current and incoming students for any prior experience.
The U. isn’t sure just how many students will qualify. Since summer 2021, about 400 students have taken a leave of absence for religious service, which is the closest estimation it has.
That could expand even more; the church’s missionary numbers have widely grown since it lowered age restrictions for full-time missionaries from 19 to 18 for men and from 21 to 19 for women.
According to numbers released by the faith this year during its 195th Annual General Conference, full-time missionary numbers rose in 2024 to 74,127 total, an 9.2% spike from the previous year.
The U. has not yet set a price per credit hour yet for the missionary and humanitarian work, like it has for the foreign language route. The university believes, though, that this option will help students save a significant amount of money compared to the price for enrolling in a standard class for the same credit.
And it hopes the effort will help students graduate faster, which state leaders have been pushing for recently.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The University of Utah campus is picture on Tuesday, Feb. 4. 2025.
The requirement to submit a portfolio falls under policy from the Utah System of Higher Education, which governs the state’s public colleges and universities. It broadly allows schools to offer prior learning credits, noting: “Your college or university may offer individualized prior learning assessments through portfolios or other means of documenting college-level learning.”
It also follows in the footsteps of a program the Legislature passed last year — at the request of Utah Gov. Spencer Cox — called the One Utah Service Fellowship, which encouraged more volunteerism.
Under the fellowship, young adults who serve their communities for up to a year either directly out of high school or while in college can earn a living allowance and college scholarship money.
“Service is the Utah way of solving problems at a community level, of helping people one by one, and doing it in ways where we are working in areas that we really care about,” Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden, said during previous discussion of SB206 that launched the fellowship.
In its inaugural year, which started in fall 2024, 66 students have been participating in the fellowship, according to data from Utah State University, which runs the program alongside UServeUtah. The state designated more than $3 million for it, and funds it with private money and federal dollars. It operates, technically, as an AmeriCorps program, which is an arm of the federal government for national service and volunteerism.
“The U.’s new program complements this effort by formally recognizing student growth through service and counting it toward their degree,” the U. said in its release.
Loggins Merrill, the executive director of UServeUtah, added in the release that he is glad to see the recognition for service and missionary work that changes lives in the community.
“Through service we are solving issues such as food insecurity, housing access, mental health, education and mentoring, including literacy gains and other real-life concerns that communities face,” he said.
The U. will also continue to offer college credit under its prior learning program for those who have done military service, including both active-duty and veterans. That applies to about 950 students currently at the university, a spokesperson estimated.
To qualify, students have to have been honorably discharged after serving at least 181 cumulative days or must currently be on active duty. They are eligible to receive four lower-division credit hours for basic training.
Overall, Utah consistently ranks the highest in the nation for its service. In 2023, census data put the state at No. 1 for having the most residents who volunteered for any kind of service.
