The time has come to save a full year of unnecessary undergraduate education by eliminating what Michael Poliakoff, President of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, has called “fluff” courses that pad out the standard four-year bachelor’s degree. These include many general education and elective courses, while retaining the core courses in a student’s major field.
Only if the business community gets on board and becomes vocal about their acceptance of a three-year college B.A. … will there be momentum in favor of the new model.
The advantages of a three-year degree are primarily economic. Besides saving one year’s tuition and fees, there are opportunity costs for staying out of the workforce during a student’s fourth year in college. The College Board reports that average tuition and fees for the 2024-25 academic year are $11,610 for in-state public college students and $43,350 for private, non-profit institutions. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, average salaries for 2025 college graduates are projected to be $68,680. Thus, the total opportunity cost (one year salary plus tuition) for public college graduates is $80,290, and for private college graduates it is $112,030.
Beyond the economic benefits, there are social ones. Ironically, while the four-year bachelor’s degree in America became nearly universal in the early 20th century on the premise that two years of general education were fundamental to citizenship, the current century is a time when half of general education is typically devoted to narrow, Woke-inspired courses such as Parenting for Social Justice (a social science general education course at my undergraduate alma mater, California State University Northridge). Many of these courses are put up by faculty in DEI-related programs, rent-seekers who wish to retain job security by having students steered toward courses in their departments.
Robert Zemsky, a University of Pennsylvania professor, a strong advocate for the three-year bachelor’s degree, has noted that the four-year curriculum expresses the preferences of faculty, a group that Kenneth Marsh, President of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, has noted have a “visceral disdain for the idea” of a three-year degree. Opposed to the forces of the status quo are many students and parents, consumers of higher education, who have what Zemsky calls a “righteous anger” about college costs and time.
In 2023, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities approved several new three-year bachelor’s degree programs at Brigham Young University — Idaho and Ensign College, institutions owned by the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) church. The Northwest Commission is a primary regional accreditor, and its president, Sonny Ramaswamy, notes that “the public is calling for innovation.”
Indiana is on track to become the first state to introduce three-year degrees at all its public colleges and universities. State Senator Jean Leising introduced a bill that became law, requiring a review of four-year degree programs. This will lead to each state institution inaugurating at least one three-year program by July 2025. Another step forward is being taken by the Colleges-in-3 Exchange, a group of a dozen public and private higher education institutions committed to designing academically sound three-year bachelor’s degrees.
Further opportunities to save time and money in earning college credits come in many forms. High school students have long earned credit through Advanced Placement exams. In many states and localities, agreements between community colleges and high schools can enable high school students to earn dual high school and college credit by taking specific courses, such as English composition, either at their high school or local community college.
The College Board offers course credit through its long-established CLEP (“College Level Exam Program”). The American Council on Education recommends numerous programs for college credit, including some corporate and military training and StaighterLine courses. StraighterLine is a private company that offers various college courses online with extremely low costs. Some 2,000 higher education institutions accept StraighterLine courses.
Many high school graduates can start college with at least a semester’s worth of general education credits by taking advantage of the above-mentioned opportunities. If they plan, they could start college in the summer after high school, thus reducing total time in college to two years to earn the three-year degree. Such students will then pick up an added benefit of $68,680 on top of the opportunity cost savings noted earlier.
Three Years and Out
Richard K. Vedder, one of the nation’s foremost experts on higher education, has noted in his recent book Let Colleges Fail: The Power of Creative Destruction in Higher Education that colleges and universities need to introduce the types of competitive forces that propel what economist Joseph Schumpeter called “the process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one.” Vedder advocates many reforms to reshape the higher education system for the current century. The three-year degree as a new standard aligns with Vedder’s views.
Notwithstanding the logic of the three-year degree requirement, the higher education establishment is likely to capitalize on the public’s general lack of understanding about college curriculum and program development. Only if the business community gets on board and becomes vocal about their acceptance of a three-year B.A. or B.S. as equivalent to the current four-year degree will there be momentum in favor of the new model.
Political champions also need to emerge to pass state laws such as the one in Indiana and draw the public’s attention to the benefits of a three-year degree. Without some “buzz” about unnecessary cost and time inflation in higher education, the nascent movement cited in this article may fade away, causing the American public to miss another opportunity for progress.
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