With tuition costs rising and some students and their families questioning the viability of a four-year degree, some state universities are pioneering programs that would allow students to earn certain bachelor’s degrees in three years.
The programs, which are also being piloted at some private schools, would require 90 credits instead of the usual 120 for a bachelor’s degree and would not require summer courses or study during semester breaks. In some cases, the degrees would be tailored to industry needs.
Indiana recently passed a law requiring all state universities to offer at least one bachelor’s degree program that can be completed in three years by next year and to explore the possibility of offering additional programs. The Utah System of Higher Education has tasked state universities with developing three-year degree programs under a modern Bachelor of Applied Studies program that still needs to be approved by accreditation committees.
More than a dozen public and private universities are participating in a pilot collaboration called the College-in-3 Exchange to consider how they might offer three-year degree programs. The public universities include the College of New Jersey, Portland State University, Southern Utah University, the universities of Minnesota at Rochester and Morris, the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and Utah Tech University.
Supporters of the three-year programs say they save students money and allow them to enter the workforce more quickly. But critics, including some faculty members, say they put students at a disadvantage, especially if they later change their minds about the career path they want to pursue.
When we work with industry and they assist us develop it, it doesn’t take away from the value of the degree. I think it creates a very special degree.
– Geoff Landward, Commissioner of the Utah System of Higher Education
The Utah Board of Higher Education approved the modern category of three-year degrees in March. Various areas of study would be tailored to specific industry needs, with fewer electives required. These degrees are broader in scope than two-year associate degrees, but narrower in scope than a four-year bachelor’s degree.
“We’ve told institutions to start working on these issues now and developing the curriculum,” Geoff Landward, commissioner of the Utah System of Higher Education, said in an interview. “We also want them to find industry partners who are willing to hire people with bachelor’s degrees like this.”
He added: “We have created a sandbox for our institutions to play in.”
Once established, individual programs would need to be accredited both nationally and approved by state higher education committees.
Landward said he acknowledged criticism that the three-year programs could “devalue” the bachelor’s degree by disadvantaging students who would not receive a comprehensive college education. But he said students could save on tuition, get a head start in the job market and meet the needs of industries seeking certain skilled workers to fill the state’s skills shortage.
This also applies to nursing, he said, where a four-year degree is required and many electives must be taken that have nothing to do with the profession.
The actual four-year care programFor example, suggests several electives as well as the mandatory anatomy, mathematics and biology courses as prerequisites for the first and second years of study.
“We believe that if we work with industry and they help us develop it, it doesn’t devalue the degree,” Landward said. “I think it creates a very specific degree.”
Robert Zemsky, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and founding director of its Institute for Research on Higher Education, began promoting the three-year college movement about twelve years ago.
He said the idea has gained traction recently because at colleges and universities, “we are wading into the deep waters of righteous anger” because of the perception that a four-year degree is not worth the high cost.
A Pew Research Center Opinion poll A study released last week found that only one in four American adults think a four-year college degree is extremely or very significant to getting a well-paying job. Only 22% of respondents said the cost of a four-year college degree is worth it, even if the student or his or her family has to take out loans.
Zemsky said a shorter time span would also lead to higher college graduation rates. More than a third of students who began pursuing a bachelor’s degree at a four-year school in fall 2014 did not complete their education at the same institution within six years. accordingly the National Center for Education Statistics.
Zemsky said 27 colleges and universities have begun creating three-year pilot programs and predicted that 100 colleges and universities will do so next year.
Over the past decade, Zemsky said, schools have ignored students’ wishes and instead designed their curricula according to teachers’ preferences – hence the greatest resistance.
Last year, President Kenneth Mash told a conference of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, a collective bargaining body for professors, that the huge majority of college faculty across the country “had a deep disdain for the idea.”
In an interview with Stateline, he said three-year programs would also hurt students by creating a “two-tier” system in which wealthy students would receive a full four-year degree and students from poorer families would receive a discounted three-year degree.
“If it’s not going to be a four-year degree, give it a name that makes it clear that it’s not a BA,” says Mash, who is also a political scientist. professor at East Stroudsburg University. “We don’t know if employers will treat them equally.”
“I believe, like most faculty, that people want to improve their career prospects. But that’s not all a college degree has to offer,” he said. “Degrees prepare you to be a better citizen, a better parent and much more.”
And he said a broad education allows students to change jobs and careers many times over the course of their working lives. “It’s really that baking in the humanities … allows people to do different things over the course of their lives.”
Indiana’s modern law
Indiana issued a Law In March, a law was passed requiring every public university offering bachelor’s degree programs to review all four-year programs with a view to converting some of them to three years. And the law requires that by July 1, 2025, every public university must offer at least one bachelor’s degree program that can be completed in three years.
Jean Leising, a Republican state senator from Indiana and a sponsor of the measure, pointed out that each additional year of study imposes costs on students, their parents and the state.
However, she noted that not all courses are suitable for compressed courses. “If you have a child in pharmacy, [studies]they won’t make it in three years. Engineers won’t make it in three years. But some of the other kids will make it.”
Chris Lowery, Indiana’s commissioner of higher education, said the law would encourage colleges to think about introducing 90-credit-hour bachelor’s degrees: “How feasible is that? Would quality still be assured? Would freedom of choice still be assured?”
Three-year degree programs offer choices, he added. His daughter, for example, had enough AP credits after high school to graduate from college in three years, but chose four years because she wanted enough time to study to get “all A’s” and also have time for extracurricular activities.
“But for many students, money is tighter,” he admitted.
Registration requirements
At both public and private universities, the modern three-year degree programmes, which require fewer credits, would have to receive national accreditation.
The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, a regional certification body, accredited several three-year bachelor’s degrees from two private schools, Brigham Young University-Idaho and Ensign College, in the last year. The degrees are in applied business management, family and social services, software development, applied health, and professional studies.
Sonny Ramaswamy, the president of the commission, said in an interview that the three-year programs would undergo a two-year evaluation before accreditation.
He said the evaluation showed that many professions could be trained in three years rather than four, and that graduate schools were ready to accept three-year bachelor’s degrees as qualifications for higher degrees. He noted that European university degrees are often obtained in three years.
“We said, ‘We will approve you, but this is a pilot project,'” Ramaswamy said. Schools will provide data showing that their students deserve a good education, he added.
“My intuition tells me that we are moving in the right direction,” he said. “The public is demanding innovation.”
Michael Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting academic freedom, excellence and accountability at colleges and universities, said “superficial” courses would strengthen the argument against a 120-credit bachelor’s degree.
“Give people a good foundation with a solid general education, solid skills and some electives,” Poliakoff said in an interview. “That’s what a responsible university should do.”
The Council conducts an annual Opinion poll of colleges and grades them on what the group calls “core curricula” – the proportion of courses in mathematics, literature, composition, economics, laboratory science, American history and government, and foreign languages.
Poliakoff said the debt students accumulate in four years is “sinful” and unnecessary. Colleges and universities must take into account the concerns of students and their families, he said.
“A 90-credit bachelor’s degree is a pretty good way to tighten the screws,” he said.
