Three-year bachelor’s degrees are the future. They need a better name.
There is a movement in higher education to offer new and innovative three-year bachelor’s degrees.
I have promoted the benefits of these programs and am encouraged that many stakeholders welcome the name for the degrees that I have proposed: a “focused bachelor’s degree.”
These credentials would require 90 to 100 credit hours rather than the traditional 120 and could be completed in three years.
Students who choose this option would focus on coursework critical for their discipline, maintain a solid foundation of general education, sometimes with fewer courses, and take fewer nonmajor electives.
The aim of the new degree programs is to offer a faster, more affordable path to the learning outcomes sought by employers. For students who borrow, the average debt at public universities in the United States exceeds t$27,420. For Georgia public universities, the average figure is nearly $27,000.
In my state of Tennessee, figures are similar but reported as median debt rather than average debt.
Accelerated bachelor’s moniker presents an obstacle
A surprising hurdle, however, stands in the early path of these new programs — the name of the credential, which could determine a student’s willingness to enter them.
Established, accredited programs of this nature use a variety of names, such as applied bachelor’s, career-focused bachelor’s or fast-track bachelor’s programs. Others simply label them as 90-hour or three-year bachelor’s degrees.
Some make the case that the credentials should simply be named bachelor’s degrees, as they confer the same learning outcomes in a chosen discipline. Others wish to distinguish the new credentials from 120-hour programs and prefer alternative names.
Certainly, national efforts to name these degrees should include universities, employers, accreditors and public officials and ensure the consumers of higher education know what the degree represents.
The success of this change in thinking should not falter on a degree name that limits the development of these programs.
We must seize this opportunity to rethink the value proposition that higher education offers students in a way that could boost enrollment and completion, confer needed skills, lower debt and give millions of Americans a faster path to prosperity.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges — which accredits more than 780 colleges and universities — originally suggested two options: “reduced hour” bachelor’s or “abridged” bachelor’s degrees.
SACSCOC, as of June, opened the door to allowing institutions to name these degrees as they wish, providing they include a modifier in the description to clearly indicate they are not traditional 120-credit hour degrees. SACSCOC is moving in the right direction.
Build upon a century-old model of higher education
This movement needs decisive leadership as we work through these important issues. I suggest that the national College-in-3 Exchange — a nonprofit organization seeks to reimagine “undergraduate education to increase student success while decreasing student costs,” according to its website — national accrediting organizations and business groups coalesce around the option of a “focused bachelor of (discipline).”
This naming protocol signals a rigorous curriculum within the discipline while still distinguishing the program from a traditional 120-hour bachelor’s degree and will help establish a uniform understanding of what it is.
SACSCOC and other accrediting organizations should be commended for opening a door to these degrees and I salute university leaders for pursuing this innovation. With the introduction of these programs, we must be cautious lest we inadvertently limit the number of students who might benefit from such degrees because of an unfortunate moniker.
Most readers would have no idea that the traditional 120-hour degree program in the United States, developed from roughly the 1890s to 1920s, was based on a 120-hour high school system called the Carnegie Unit, which was embraced by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and ultimately was modified and adopted by universities.
The system created a more standardized method to manage faculty work, budgeting and degree completion, but it was never designed as an ideal measure of learning outcomes.
While many will still choose 120-hour programs, it is time to offer options to that century-old model that would benefit all students, but especially the 73% of students in American higher education who are nontraditional — those who delay enrollment after high school, are working full time, are parents or are attending part time. And it starts with a degree name that reflects their mastery of a discipline, a focused degree — a focused bachelor’s degree.
Tre Hargett, as Tennessee’s 37th secretary of state, serves as the chief executive officer of the state’s Department of State, with oversight of approximately 300 employees, and additionally serves on 15 boards and commissions, including the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
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