Starbucks Expands Free College Plan to 4 Years

Starbucks Corporation is expanding its college tuition assistance program to offer U.S. employees a full reimbursement of tuition for online bachelor’s degrees, company executives revealed on Tuesday.

Any Starbucks employee who works more than 20 hours a week will be eligible for a loan to cover tuition at Arizona State University, which the company will reimburse once the student has received a passing grade at the end of each semester, the Wall Street Journal reports. Previously, the program limited tuition reimbursements to juniors and seniors.

Starbucks is budgeting upwards of $250 million for the program and expects at least 25,000 employees to take advantage of the offer by 2025.

Chief executive Howard Schultz said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that the program highlighted the company’s commitment to “do everything we can to help our people get access to college.”

Read more at the Wall Street Journal.