Degrees within Reach: How Duke Employees Are Earning Degrees with Tuition Assistance

With the expanded benefit, eligible institutions no longer need to have a physical presence in North Carolina, the service requirement for employees has been reduced from two years to six months of full-time employment, one semester of Ph.D. research is reimbursed, and Watts College of Nursing is among eligible institutions.

“I think it’s phenomenal that when we ensure we’re an employer of choice, we show our commitment to education,” said Antwan Lofton, Vice President of Duke Human Resources. “We’re not limiting someone’s development. We have enlarged the reach of the program so that more people can take advantage of the benefit.”

Novik has been chipping away at classes at Alamance Community College, where he'll wrap up his studies this fall. He plans to transfer credits to Appalachian State in the spring to earn a bachelor’s in Communications Studies. Now 48, he wants to earn his degree before he turns 50.

“My desire to get the degree is twofold,” Novik said. “It’s about satisfying the lifelong goal, but it’s just as much about becoming a more well-rounded and skilled employee.”

‘Make the biggest impact’

Mariah Mawyin has always been fascinated with the human body – how it moves and repairs itself, how it can be fixed. But she decided to be a nurse because she wants to help people.

“I get my happiness out of helping others. It makes me feel like I’m making an impact, and I want to make the biggest impact that I can,” Mawyin said.

It also seemed like a natural transition for Mawyin, 23, who has been at Duke since 2022. She was working as a Health Unit Coordinator in the Duke University Hospital cardiothoracic unit when a friend told her about the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at Watts College of Nursing. She applied in 2023.

Mawyin said Duke’s tuition reimbursement money – up to $5,250 per year – helped her afford the $11,000 per semester tuition at Watts when combined with a loan forgiveness program through a partnership between Duke University Health System and Watts.

That’s savings she needs even more, now: Mawyin learned she was pregnant a week before she received her acceptance into Watts, which was established in 1895 in Durham. Her son, Marcel, was born Dec. 8, 2023.

Mawyin earned her bachelor's in nursing in May 2025, and in June she started her new position as a Clinical Nurse for the same cardiothoracic unit where she trained. She credits Watts for helping her get there.

“I love my school,” said . “It’s a very small school, and a lot of people don’t know about Watts. But my favorite thing about Watts is the exposure to everywhere at Duke. If you want to work at Duke, it’s a super-easy transition.”

Mawyin now juggles 12-hour nursing shifts with caring for Marcel, and she recently decided she's not done with her education. After her father, who was her inspiration for earning her degree, died unexpectedly this year, she said she wants to earn her master's to become a cardiothoracic advanced practice practitioner.

"He fought so hard for me to finish nursing school, and I carry that with me every day at work," she said.

A degree from out-of-state

Heidi Rowe was excited when she heard about the graduate program in bioethics at The Ohio State University. It seemed like the perfect combination of her interest in both health care and philosophy. Rowe, who has worked at the Duke Cancer Clinic as a Mammography Technologist since 2019, earned a bachelor’s in philosophy from University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

“It marries those two topics together for me,” she said.

Rowe applied for the Ohio State program before the expansion of Duke’s Employee Tuition Assistance Program and was thrilled to be accepted until she learned the benefit did not reimburse classes at institutions without a physical presence in North Carolina.

But then Duke announced in 2023 that it was expanding the program, and Rowe realized her dream degree was possible, again.

“I was very, very grateful and excited about that,” she said.

In 2023-24, 106 new institutions were added to Duke’s expanded benefit. The list of places where Duke employees have been reimbursed for classes now includes institutions in every corner of the country – including Gonzaga University, University of Chicago, University of Florida and University of Maine.

Rowe describes herself as “against student loans and debt,” and said she likely would not be pursuing a master’s degree if not for Duke’s benefit. She has been taking about two classes each year at Ohio State virtually since 2023 and hopes to graduate at the end of 2026.

“I just feel like it opens more doors, and it helps me be more cognizant of practicing ethically in my own field,” Rowe said. “It just opens more doors in general and broadens my mind.”

In fact, there’s only one drawback to getting her graduate degree from Ohio State: her in-laws are from Michigan.

“They love me enough not to hate me for going to their rival,” Rowe said, laughing.

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