Three-Year Bachelor's Degrees Could Become the Standard—If Accreditors Allow It

Rising tuition costs have made three-year degree programs an enticing option for cost-stressed students.

Last week, Johnson & Wales University (JWU) in Rhode Island announced the launch of the nation's first in-person, three-year bachelor's degree programs. While other institutions already offer three-year bachelor's degrees, these programs are either exclusively online or require 120 credit hours. JWU students will be able to complete a degree in computer science, criminal justice, graphic design, and hospitality management within 90 to 96 credit hours. 

The launch of JWU's program follows a recent wave of support for similar initiatives across the country. In March, the Utah Board of Higher Education authorized state colleges to explore creating three-year bachelor's degrees. That same month, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed a law requiring each of the state's public four-year colleges to review their bachelor's degree programs to determine whether they could be completed in three years.

Yet despite the growing momentum, whether or not three-year degrees become more ubiquitous will be up to accreditors. 

The New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), JWU's accreditor, approved the program in September. Similar programs at Merrimack College and New England College were approved by the NECHE in March, but have yet to be launched, according to The Boston Globe.

College accreditors have historically been wary about approving three-year programs. Before its three-year degree program was approved, New England College had its proposal rejected by the NECHE, which did not consider the college's sub-120-hour degree programs to offer the equivalent value of a four-year degree, according to Inside Higher Ed. 

Critics of three-year degrees have raised concerns that these programs will reduce interest in liberal arts courses, which may have personal value for students and faculty but offer little use in the job market. Kenneth Mash, the President of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, told Stateline that he has "visceral disdain for the idea" because of the potential it has in creating a two-tiered system where only wealthy students have the privilege of receiving a well-rounded four-year education. 

Robert Zemsky, a University of Pennsylvania professor and co-founder of College-in-3, a group of colleges and universities advocating for three-year degree programs, is one of the leading voices of the three-year degree movement. He argues that these programs could cut the price of attendance by 25 percent while increasing completion and retention rates. 

With regard to Mash's criticism, Zemsky tells Reason that much of it originates from faculty unions who fear that "a three-year degree will reduce the number of faculty," thus hurting their livelihoods.

"In a sense, they are right," Zemsky said, "but that we have reached a point now where college is simply too expensive and you have to begin to decide what's really important now. When you really look at most college curricula, the courses that are offered are the courses, not that the students need, but that the faculty want to teach. If we move away from that and produce student-centered curricula, there will be better learning, better retention, and less price to the suit."

Zemsky admits that while he sees three-year degrees potentially helping completion and retention rates, there isn't enough empirical data to support these claims. Thanks to a recently awarded grant, College-in-3 will soon start exploring ways to verify these statements by testing them in more than 50 participating institutions that are in different stages of researching and developing three-year degree plans, he tells Reason. 

Education leaders that Zemsky has spoken with have called the three-year degree "liberating." College-in-3 may currently only have about 50 members, but Zemsky is optimistic that this number will likely grow to at least 100 over the next year and 500 in the next three years. 

With sky-high tuition costs in many colleges and universities, three-year degrees have only gotten more attractive for price-stressed students. Whether future students have the choice to attend a three-year program is now in the hands of both accreditors and initiatives pushing for more student options.