A handful of conventional colleges and universities are adding three-year degrees as students and families increasingly chafe at the more than four years it now takes most of those earning bachelor’s degrees to finish — and the resulting additional cost.
Offering accelerated combined bachelor’s and master’s degrees also helps keep undergraduates from leaving for graduate study; those who stay provide universities with essential revenue.
“I know exactly what I want to do when I graduate. So graduating early will just save me a ton of money,” said Leah Easton, 20, who is on track to finish her degree at Utica in 3 1/2 years. In higher education, “there are often really good ideas that never make it to fruition because of the inertia that we know and love in the academy,” she said.
“There are days when I will go without sleeping,” said Alyssa Russette, who, at 27, is trying to finish a bachelor’s degree in three years at Montana while also working and raising a 4-year-old son. “Caffeine is a big motivator.”NewU is trying a different approach: lengthening semesters to 18 weeks so that students earn four instead of three credits per course.
At Georgetown’s research and development lab, Bass is also considering how universities can plan credential pathways that confer combined bachelor’s and master’s degrees more quickly.