ASU’s Dean of Online Courses Philip Regier said the program starts in October and he anticipates between 4,000 and 12,000 Starbucks employees nationwide will take advantage of the free tuition.  To qualify, Starbucks employees must work at least 20 hours a week.  Regier said it’s a plus for Starbucks because its employees will probably stay on the payroll longer ... and the program benefits ASU, too.

"Online education gets better, like anything on the internet, as you scale it … when it gets larger, this is going to give us an opportunity to improve our services (and) improve our courses even more moving forward with Starbucks as a partner," Regier said.

He said ASU offers 40 degree programs online.  Regier estimates 3,000 Starbucks employees in Arizona are currently enrolled at ASU and other colleges in the state.