Accelerated Baccalaureate Degrees
Sonny Ramaswamy, President, NWCCU
Selena Grace, Executive Vice President, NWCCU
Historical Context of Undergraduate Degrees in the United States
Although post-secondary education has been offered in the United States since the establishment of Harvard in 1636, only since the early 1900s, public and private degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States have offered baccalaureate degrees that typically take four years for completion. During the 1890s, Harvard professor Charles W. Eliot devised the collegiate credit hour standard, which the Carnegie Foundation formalized in 1906 and which formed the basis of retirement pensions (later known as TIAA-CREF) for university professors with the qualification that universities must enforce the standard. By 1910, nearly all secondary institutions in the United States used the “Carnegie Unit” to define course work.
The Carnegie Foundation also established that college “work” must include a minimum of four years of study and provided additional definitions. The Carnegie Unit, thus, was a time-based reference for measuring educational attainment, and Student Hour was approximately 12 hours of class or contact time. Student Hour – also referred to as Credit Hour – was the equivalent of one hour (50 minutes) of lecture time for a single student per week over the course of a semester, usually 14 to 16 weeks. The typical bachelor’s degree program of study on a semester calendar required at least 120 credit hours, normal full-time registration was usually 15 credit hours per semester or 30 per academic year and comprised approximately 30-40 courses.
Thus, the genesis of the four-year undergraduate degrees in the United States was tied to the definition of workloads for faculty, which in turn was tied to faculty pensions!
Extant Four-Year Baccalaureate Degrees in the United States
The model of the four-year degree based on the Carnegie Unit that was created over 100 years ago became the norm in American colleges and universities. Under the four-year baccalaureate degree model that exists today, students are required to take approximately 120 semester or 180 quarter credits of courses, which may include practicums and laboratory modules. Each term students may register for a set number of credit hours and demonstrate learning outcomes via term papers, quizzes, and exams. The typical four-year baccalaureate degree programs may include:
- Foundational courses that provide a broad educational base and include General Education curricula that inculcate core competencies and skills such as, for example, critical thinking, problem solving, and communication skills, digital and information literacy, ethics and professionalism, global awareness, and cultural sensitivity.
- Institution- or discipline-specific graduation requirements, including advanced upper division courses, foreign language proficiency, or advanced math and science requirements.
- Courses specific to the chosen field of study, i.e., major.
- In addition, many students choose to add minors, certificates, microcredentials, enrichment programs, and high impact experiential learning, including co-op programs, study abroad, externships, or internships to complement their major. These additional programs can typically be part of the 120/180 semester/quarter credits required for a baccalaureate degree or be supplemental.
Model of Undergraduate Degrees in Other Countries
Baccalaureate degrees in other countries, including, for example, in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Slovakia, Australia, and India, typically are completed in three years; however, professional and specialized degrees may last four, five, or even six years.
For over 15 years, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers Electronic Database for Global Education (AACRAO EDGE) has been evaluating foreign educational credentials for international students interested in pursuing post-graduate education in the United States. Based on the evaluation, which includes the number of years of full-time study or benchmarking that emphasizes learning outcomes, international students with three-year degrees may be admitted directly into graduate programs in the United States. Some American universities may require such students to take additional courses before they embark on their graduate degrees.
To harmonize and to create an internationally competitive European Area of Higher Education, some systems of European higher education established the Bologna Process in 1999. As part of the European Higher Education Area, participating countries agreed to: introduction of a three-cycle higher education system consisting of bachelor’s (Level 1), master’s (Level 2), and doctoral (Level 3) studies; mutual recognition of qualifications and learning periods abroad completed at other universities; and implementing a system of quality assurance to strengthen the quality and relevance of learning and teaching. To date, 49 countries are members of the Bologna Process.
The Bologna Process also states that Level 1 (bachelor’s degree) must be at least three years in length and precede Level 2 (master’s degree).
Some American universities accept the Bologna Process credentialing, which allows graduates of European member institutions with three-year degrees to be accepted seamlessly into graduate programs at those institutions. The Bologna Process ensures comparability in the standards and quality of higher-education qualifications.
Accelerated Baccalaureate Degrees
Starting a few years ago, there has been a call for a reexamination of the seat time approach to baccalaureate degrees, i.e., that undergraduate degrees must last four-years. Ironically, about a decade ago, the Carnegie Foundation itself began to question the premise of the universal credit hour, “because it promotes the false perception that seat time equals learning,” which apparently was not the intent when the Carnegie Unit was created more than a century ago. Across higher education many alternative approaches have emerged that challenge the traditional Carnegie Unit and seat time approach. Indeed, Thomas Ehrlich is quoted as saying that the Carnegie Unit “may be perpetuating bad habits that get in the way of institutional change in higher education.”
In contrast to the traditional four-year baccalaureate program, accelerated baccalaureate degree programs allow students to complete program requirements in fewer than four years. There are different models of these accelerated baccalaureate degree programs.
Some institutions have purposefully created pathways for students to complete the approximately 120 semester/180 quarter credits in three years. Students rack up all the requirements for four-year baccalaureate degrees within three years by taking more than the typical credit load per term and take the remaining credits during summer terms. Note that nothing prevents students from doing this at any institution; the challenge is one of effective advising, along with course availability and sequencing. For example, Sonny’s daughter completed her undergraduate degree in three years at New York University.
Yet another model is based on competency-based education (CBE) or direct assessment (DA). In the former CBE model, student learning outcomes are based on achievement of clearly defined, disciplinary competencies, in which students complete the degree degree requirements at their own pace and some can potentially complete their undergraduate degrees in fewer years than the typical four-year timeframe. In the latter DA model, students take a combination of courses and practical education that are assessed directly for mastery of course and program requirements and not based on pre-determined seat time to earn credits. In the DA model, as well, students complete the degree requirements at their own pace, and some can potentially complete their undergraduate degrees in fewer years than the typical four-year timeframe.
NWCCU received a proposal from Brigham Young University-Idaho and Ensign College for a new, Accelerated Baccalaureate Degree constituting approximately 90-credits to be completed in three-years. The proposal was subjected to an intense, iterative review and assessment over almost two years, which included a number of questions from members of the NWCCU Board of Commissioners, multiple conversations with federal accreditation and student aid staff, state regulators, a number of graduate school deans across the United States, disciplinary and programmatic accreditors, and myriad others.
During the vetting process, we learned that the United States Department of Education (USDE) does not per se have specific regulations that specify seat time nor credit hour requirements. Similarly, NWCCU does not have Standards for Accreditation nor Eligibility Requirements that specify seat time nor credit hours. Creation of accelerated baccalaureate degrees do not per se impact the institution’s accreditation status. The USDE’s Federal Student Aid office informed us that domestic students in 90-credit, three-year baccalaureate programs remain fully eligible for federal financial aid, including student loans and Pell Grants. Similarly, there are no apparent statutory constraints to students in three-year baccalaureate programs being eligible for student aid at the state level.
In addition, we sought answers from various stakeholders and specifically from the two institutions to a number of questions, including:
- How do 90-credit, three-year baccalaureate programs ensure the same level of educational quality as 120 semester/180 quarter credit, four-year programs?
- What is the specific structure of the 90-credit, three-year baccalaureate degree programs, and how do they differ from four-year degrees? Are there provisions for stackable programs, and how do they enhance the educational experience?
- Will the 90-credit, three-year baccalaureate program allow for and include experiential education and capstone courses and experiences?
- How have students, faculty, and other relevant stakeholders been involved in the development and evaluation of these proposals?
- How might the combination of concurrent/dual enrollment credits received at high schools be incorporated into a 90-credit, three-year baccalaureate degree program?
- What will be the impact of 90-credit, three-year degree programs on community colleges? Is there a risk that these factors could temporarily diminish community colleges’ ability to attract students?
- Will students with a three-year baccalaureate degree meet various post-graduation requirements, including for professional licensure, employment, graduate education?
- What will be the overall impact on institutional finances and reputation?
- How might this influence grant funding, graduate school placement, faculty recruitment, and other institutional aspects?
- Will student learning outcomes of students in 90-credit, three-year degree programs be comparable to those of four-year degree programs? How will success of these programs be measured and what benchmarks will be used?
- Will graduate and professional degree programs consider applicants who have completed three-year baccalaureate degrees?
- What implications will the introduction of three-year baccalaureate programs have on the transferability of college credits earned in high school or at two-year institutions? Specifically, how will this affect the seamless transfer of credits into receiving institutions that have condensed learning outcomes and subject matter mastery into 90 semester credits?
In addition, NWCCU also made the determination that the 90-credit, three-year baccalaureate programs likely will not be applicable to all disciplines, including, for example, engineering, health professions, and agriculture and forestry, and other such programs that have unique curricular and experiential educational and capstone requirements. Much of the learning outcomes and degree requirements associated with these latter disciplines are driven by programmatic accreditors. However, it is important to note that many of the specialized accreditors are also looking at different accelerated pathways to baccalaureate degree completion.
The proposals for the 90-credit, three-year degrees from BYU-I and Ensign have been approved as a pilot to offer a limited number of baccalaureate degrees constituting 90-95 semester credits, each of which includes three stackable ~30-credit units and incorporate general electives and institutional learning outcomes related to core competencies into the stackable courses. NWCCU will assess how these degrees compare with traditional four-year/120-180 semester/quarter credit hour degrees based on multiple criteria, by tracking student learning outcomes and their assessment, milestones, retention and completion rates, and post-graduation outcomes, including employability, licensure, student loan default rates, admission into graduate and professional schools, and more. After assessment of the pilot at the end of each year, NWCCU will make a determination on whether to authorize additional three-year baccalaureate degrees at these and other institutions.
This past winter (March 2024), the New England Commission on Higher Education (NECHE) provided guidance to its member institutions considering offering baccalaureate degrees constituting fewer than 120 credits. To date, they have not approved any institution to offer the same. The guidance includes requirements that the institution must clearly distinguish the degree with a prefix that it requires fewer than 120 credit hours, include language prominently displayed in marketing materials, including on websites, that graduate, professional schools, and employers may not accept baccalaureate degrees with fewer than 120 credits, specify the program creates a pathway to a four-year degree, ensure institutions develop an assessment plan that measures student outcomes, including post-gradation outcomes, define curricular requirements, and, critically, meet NECHE’s Standards for Accreditation.
In addition, a representative from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) stated at the Second College-in-3 Exchange Conference that they are developing a path to approve three-year baccalaureate degrees, for which HLC has recently released a guidance document.
Suzanne T. Ortega, president of the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS), stated that, while the CGS and its members “care deeply about” finding ways to address the cost of higher education, they “caution against promising students that a three-year bachelor’s degree will prepare them appropriately for graduate school in all circumstances. She pointed out that “graduate schools must comply with requirements set by accreditors and state boards, and noted that admissions committees consider applicants’ extracurricular activities, research, and internships-experiences that an accelerated college degree may not allow time for.”
As an accreditor, NWCCU does not set requirements for seat time nor credit hours for baccalaureate degrees. Our focus continues to be on student learning outcomes. In addition, several graduate school deans we reached out to stated that every graduate program reviews each application for graduate school – whether from a four-year program or foreign three-year program – to ensure they meet the requirements unique to each graduate program.
Rationale for Accelerated Baccalaureate Degrees
Accelerated baccalaureate degrees are an opportunity for institutions to create student-centric and flexible programs of study. By shortening the time to graduation and successful completion of educational goals, they can reduce the net cost of higher education and potentially have a significant impact on the student debt crisis in our nation.
In addition, accelerated baccalaureate degree programs such as the 90-credit, three-year degrees offer nontraditional students, including veterans and active-duty military personnel, the opportunity to achieve their educational aspirations in the shortest time possible. Similarly, the approximately 40-plus million individuals that have some college credits, but did not complete the degree requirements, are another group that can benefit from accelerated baccalaureate degrees. These groups will require institutions to spend the time to review the prior learning and educational credentials and map them through a path to allow such individuals to complete their degrees. This diverse population of individuals is not looking for, nor do they need, the traditional college experience. They are facing complex work-family-life balance issues and the 90-credit, three-year degree offers an alternative pathway for those individuals to achieve a better way of life. Furthermore, institutions should look at incorporating skills-based learning, embedded internships, and other high impact practices in such programs. The economic gains that may be realized are going to be significant.
Legislative and Other Actions
A few state legislatures and regulatory bodies have initiated efforts to promote the creation and execution of three-year degrees.
For example, the Indiana state Senate has recently passed Senate Bill 8, which, in addition to several new initiatives, “Requires each institution that offers baccalaureate degrees to establish a policy to review each of the institution’s four year baccalaureate degree program offerings to determine the feasibility of providing each in a specifically structured manner to allow a full-time student to complete the baccalaureate degree within three years. Requires, not later than July 1, 2025, each institution to offer at least one baccalaureate degree program specifically structured to allow a full-time student to complete the baccalaureate degree within three years. Requires an institution to provide an annual report to the commission regarding offering four year baccalaureate degree programs completed in three years.” This Bill awaits action in the Indiana House of Representatives.
A recent vote by the Utah Board of Higher Education creates a path for Utah public colleges and universities to offer three-year applied studies bachelor’s degrees in some disciplines tied to specific industry workforce needs and faster pathways into careers. The new, applied studies bachelor’s degree would comprise 90 credits for completion, unlike the 120 credits required for a four-year bachelor’s degree.
At the federal level, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar has incorporated a provision in a 2024 spending bill to let colleges use federal financial aid funds through the United States Department of Education’s Experimental Sites Initiative program to try three-year degrees. Whether this becomes reality remains to be determined.
Conclusions
The time has come for the American higher education community to recognize that there is nothing sacrosanct about the traditional four-year degree programs, as practiced in America for over 100 years, which as we noted above was a way to account for workloads and pensions.
In this era of alternative credentials and competition from corporate America, it’s an opportunity for institutions of higher education to be creative and reimagine and reengineer higher education. The College-in-3 effort created by Robert Zemsky, Lori Carrell, and colleagues offers rationale and ideas to create three-year degree programs.
We believe there are multiple paths to achieving the necessary credentials, including accelerated baccalaureate degrees, in a thoughtful and deliberate manner. The process must take into account issues related to program evaluation, quality assurance, governance, faculty buy-in, and finances. The focus should be on student learning outcomes, which inculcate knowledge and skills, and not seat time. In addition, we do not believe accelerated baccalaureate degrees should be identified differently – they’re baccalaureate degrees.
As noted above there are different paths to achieving baccalaureate credentials, focused on learning outcomes. If the learning outcomes in four-year degree programs and three-year degree programs are the same, why should the latter be considered less than the former? To paraphrase the inimitable words of the poet James Whitcomb Riley, “if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck.”
Accelerated baccalaureate degrees are a path to further democratizing postsecondary education by enhancing affordability, accessibility, and program alignment to labor market needs. It puts students at the center.
Let’s reimagine and reengineer higher education!
