What are Shared Degrees?

Colleges and universities across the country are in financial crisis. Amidst budget cuts and lost federal and state funding, schools are being forced to make tough decisions to make ends meets. These decisions often entail cutting programs and classes that are under enrolled. These cuts could spell big trouble for students and faculty alike. Students might not be able to meet degree requirements for graduation and without classes to teach, some instructors could lose their jobs. But some schools across the country are trying to take a creative and modern approach to this dilemma. Hence, the shared degree. While the idea of shared degrees is not new, the approach is. Traditionally, two schools in close proximity have joined together to share their resources, offering students classes at both campuses in order to satisfy a course requirement. But the new outlook for shared degrees is much different. Colleges from across a state or within a particular university system can join forces to provide students with distance learning classes they would otherwise not be able to take due to course or class cuts. That means a college student from Texas Tech University could potentially take a physics class from the Texas A&M University, almost eight hours away. The schools can pool their resources to meet the needs of their students.

While these programs have not been initiated yet, the leaders of the 14 state-run universities in Pennsylvania are going to be the first to try. They plan to provide students with distance learning classes via software or teleconference. They hope that this style of learning will provide more options to their students as well as their faculty. With students from across the state being able to enroll in particular classes, it will allow some teachers to keep their jobs as well as maintain that revenue for those universities. While the 14 colleges have yet to announce which classes or programs they will provide in this distance learning environment, it is speculated that the most under enrolled classes are those in foreign language and advanced sciences like physics.

The trend of shared degrees is one that benefits both university and student. The university can maintain their program offerings and not lose enrollment due to program cuts, and students can take the classes they need to satisfy their degree plan and graduate without having to transfer schools.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 8:22 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.