shore up the two year campuses, the University of Wisconsin System on November 9, 2017, the UW Board of Regents voted to proceed with a proposal that merged the physical University of Wisconsin Colleges campuses with seven of the four-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin System. The merger created regional clusters with two-year branches of the comprehensive four-year campuses. It would allow the system to maintain a higher education presence throughout the state's counties where college-aged students had dropped because of declining birthrates. The resulting merger would also allow students to freely transfer from a two-year campus to any for year-year institution within the university system. See also Wisconsin Technical College System References External links University of Wisconsin Colleges Further reading Bower, Jerry. The University of Wisconsin Colleges, 1919-1997: The Wisconsin Idea at Work. New Past P, 2002. 978-0938627555 University of Wisconsin System