I saw this article on the front page of the soon to be defunct AANews from yesterday, an article that ran in the Washington Post: “Colleges Consider 3-Year Degrees to Save Undergrads Time, Money.” I don’t know who these colleges that are supposedly considering this are, but I would rate the chances of this actually happening as “not bloody likely.” As pointed out in the article:
The four-year bachelor’s degree has been the model in the United States since the first universities began operating before the American Revolution. Four-year degrees were designed in large part to provide a broad-based education that teaches young people to analyze and think critically, considered vital preparation to participate in the civic life of American democracy.
And when higher ed basically agrees to something for 250 years in this country, it’s not likely to change anytime soon.
Besides, the issue is not really how long it takes to complete a degree. If someone really wanted to complete their degree in three years or even less, I’m sure they could by taking overloads and spring/summer classes without a break. The more common story– especially at places like EMU– is it takes more like five or six or more years to finish the degree because of finances and because of students changing majors.
Couldn’t they just reduce the number of credit hours needed to graduate?
(I’m sure it’s not that simple due to accreditation procedures, but it does sound mathematically correct).
One of my regular departing EMU professors happened to get his in 2 years. And, he was admitted semi-early.
I’m going to finish in 4, and I’ve messed around tons, and transferred here.
That being said, as I student I would like the idea of saving money, possibly reducing gen-eds or making more electives and testing out opportunities possible. Do I need to take several similar classes? No. I would also prefer substituting gen-eds for higher level classes (with appropriate testing, the like).
As far as I can tell, none of these three year plans include fewer classes/credit hours. There’s mention in the article of a plan at Upper Iowa University of a program where students can finish in 3 years, but it isn’t fewer classes– just an accelerated pace.
A three year program with fewer credits would probably create other problems. For example, I’ve worked with some grad students from India where the standard is a 3 year degree with fewer credits. In order to be admitted into our MA program, they have to complete what is called a “bridge” program of 30 undergraduate credits.
By the way, I thought if a student registered for more than 12 credits, it didn’t cost more money– in other words, taking 12 credits in a term and taking 18 credits cost the same amount of money. Am I wrong about that?
Steve, I am not necessarily the person to say, but yes, I believe you have a mistaken impression on tuition/fees. Eastern charges by the credit hour, and I don’t think there’s a point above which Eastern does not charge for the credit hour. If that existed, the university would not gain increased revenue from increasing the number of credits students register for — and that has been precisely the university’s goal over that last year, to increase total student credit hours taken, in order to reduce the budget gap. All this from me in a totally non-technical descriptive fashion, but I am pretty sure I’m correct. Other schools may well do as you say. Decades ago, when I was an undergrad, this was the case at my college, but I don’t know if that’s a common practice anymore.
You might be right Mark, mainly because I might also be channeling my own college experiences.
Anyone out there actually know the answer to this question?