Peoria Standard

Illinois moving to have its public universities on a single app to help state students select a higher education college based in the Prairie State.

Illinois is home to 12 universities, and in the hopes of keeping students in the state, the Illinois deputy governor for education decided to herald in the new times with consistent usage of Common App.

“There is now one Common App where students can go and access all our public universities,” Jesse Ruiz told Fox News in March. “Illinois is the second state to have all its public universities on Common App.”

Common App is an online application colleges and universities can use to make it easier to get a college education, even in the midst of a pandemic.

“Gov. [J.B] Pritzker has championed this in his last few budgets providing support for our public universities to do this,” the deputy governor for education said, the Illinois Newsroom reported. “There is some expense, but we think it’s well worth it, given the advantages it gives to all our students in Illinois.”

The new budget’s funding for education is substantial, including $1 million for the fiscal year 2022 to help universities manage the transition to Common App.

“it’s a win-win on all sides that they’re keeping our Illinois institutions robust with robust enrollments, and also hopefully growing the number of Illinoisans who achieve a higher education degree or certificate or training and making sure that more and more Illinoisans have access to it,” Ruiz said.

Common App is a nonprofit organization that represents almost 900 higher education institutions.

The state’s investment is hoped to help students remain in the state who may otherwise choose to seek out-of-state education options.