Education Expert Touts a Three-Year Degree

Robert Zemsky, chairman of the Learning Alliance for Higher Education, talks about his new book

October 6, 2009 RSS Feed Print

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Robert Zemsky

Q: Will three-year degrees help the high numbers of students who start but ultimately drop out of college?

A: We have to get honest with ourselves about attainment. We don't have an access problem; we have an attainment problem. We make dropout rates at college worse because we pay large numbers of unprepared students to go to college. From their perspective, the smartest thing they can do is go to college. They have Pell grants, they have low-interest loans, and they have job prospects that are not promising without a college degree, so what do they have to lose? Lightning just might strike. But of course it doesn't, and many students start failing, get discouraged, and drop out.

Q: The book has been out for a few weeks now. Have you received any significant responses from parents or college students?

A: That's the strange thing about all of this. There are breaks between what people know-which is nothing-and how they act. Families know that college is too expensive, yet they still send their children to expensive schools. People are cautious to come out and support three-year degrees, but especially in response to this book, they are slowly starting to come around.

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Tags:: University of Pennsylvania,; colleges,; high school,; paying for college

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Tips Weight Loss of 10:03AM March 27, 2010

Saving 25% of college costs is something that is understandably appealing to many, including students, parents and the US Congress. Happily, there exists a good example of a long-running very successful 3-year degree program proving that a high-quality university education can be delivered without any diminution of academic content.
In 1996, Southern New Hampshire University completely redesigned its 4-year business administration major so that it could be delivered in six semesters instead of eight. No summer-school or inter-sessions are needed. This competency and outcomes-based 120 credit honors program has proven to be very attractive especially since it lowers the cost of a university education by 25% for both the student and the university.
See http://tomprofblog.mit.edu/2009/05/12/947-highly-successful-3-year-degree-program-graduate-10th-class-in-may-2009/

Robert Seidman of NH 8:35AM January 11, 2010

In the past some universities used to use the quarter system where 3 quarters would be the equivalent of 2 semesters. I believe the University of Pittsburgh still uses such a system today. Currently most undergraduate degrees at universities are 120 credits, so if a student takes 12 credits per quarter and attends during the summer then he or she could graduate in as little as 2.5 years. A part-time student (6 credits per quarter) would take 5 years to graduate. Most traditional universities offer very few classes during the summer and the opportunity cost of their facilities being idle is tremendous. They should operate year round.
Another option would be to allow the best high school students to attend college during their senior year in high school. The states could help the students by paying the universities the cost savings by not having them attend high school. So most would get reduced tuition.
The American education system is broken. It was designed during a very different era when students were needed during the summer to help with the family farm. It needs to be redesigned for the information age.

Andy of FL 10:41PM November 08, 2009