Page 234 - Crisis in Higher Education

Redesigning Curriculum and Pedagogy • 205

4. Minor field of study and/or free electives: Some programs have a
minor that complements the major. For example, a psychology major
may find value in a philosophy minor. Free electives are satisfied by
any course, so they help transfer students because courses completed
for their first degree but that are not needed in the new program can
be counted as free electives. For example, if a student completed a
material science course and decided to transfer from engineering to
business, this course may count as a free elective because there is no
similar course in business.

10.1.2 Length of a Bachelor’s Degree

The nominal length of a bachelor’s degree is 120 semester credit hours,
which can be completed in four years when taking 15 hours per semester.
However, Complete College America, a national nonprofit organization,
estimates that nearly half of all undergraduate degree programs require
more than 120 credit hours for a bachelor’s degree. Some examples are
5
listed in Table 10.1. Even when students take 15 credit hours each term,
these degree programs may require 4.5 or 5 years of study, possibly more, so
too many students take longer than four years to earn a bachelor’s degree.
As shown by the first column of data in Table 10.1, all degrees have at least
one option that offers the program in 120 credit hours. Professional degree
programs tend to have a higher median number and a higher maximum
number of student credit hours than the nonprofessional programs. 5
The financial impact of another year on campus at a public university
was $24,061 in 2015–2016. The amount was half as much when only one
semester was needed. For these data, see Table 1.1 in Chapter 1. There may
be ways to reduce this extra cost. Students can move home, take courses at
a local, public university, and transfer the credits back so they can gradu-
ate. Whether students move home or not, they lose nearly four months of
wages for each semester they are unable to work at their new career. Lost
wages mount up quickly and are not recoverable.
The arguments against a bachelor’s degree requiring more than
120 semester credit hours are as follows: it (1) prolongs graduation;
(2) increases costs for tuition, fees, textbooks, and so on; and (3) prevents
graduates from earning career-level wages during this time. The argu-
ment in favor of setting the graduation requirement higher than 120 credit
hours is that there is simply too much for students to learn so they can
(1) succeed in their jobs and careers, (2) pass certification and licensure