As three-year degrees become increasingly common, Connecticut has rejected these reduced-credit programs—at least for now.
A broad bill that would have allowed the state’s institutions to create 90-credit degrees died in committee last week, after Democratic leaders of the Connecticut General Assembly’s Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee declined to advance it.
Madeleine Green, the executive director of the College-in-3 Exchange, a collective that researches and advocates for reduced-credit bachelor’s programs, in an email to Inside Higher Ed called the failed legislation a missed opportunity for the state to lower the cost of higher education.
“Innovations do not always succeed on the first attempt, and I am hopeful that Connecticut will ultimately join other states that have already developed policies that recognize the benefits of three-year degrees for students, families, and employers,” she wrote.
Opponents, including the co-chairs of the committee, members of the state’s American Association of University Professors chapters and other faculty members, argue that 90-credit bachelor’s degrees would be misleading to students. If the degree title has “bachelor’s” in the name—some three-year programs are called “professional bachelor’s degrees” or “applied bachelor’s degrees,” for example—students may not understand until it’s too late that they are not equivalent to a four-year degree in the eyes of some graduate programs and employers, critics argue. They’ve also expressed concern that three-year programs, which generally cut out electives, will not serve students as well in today’s rapidly changing job market.
“What we’re doing is making it harder for students to prepare themselves for the future job market in the long run by failing to give them the breadth of skills that they’ll need,” said Wynn Gadkar Wilcox, a history professor at Western Connecticut State University, interim president of the university’s AAUP chapter and one of nearly 30 professors who submitted testimony opposing the legislation.
But proponents of the legislation say they’re concerned that Connecticut will be the only New England state without the 90-credit option, putting the state at a disadvantage for attracting students. Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island all have institutions offering such programs already (no institutions in Vermont have expressed interest, those proponents say). The New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), the accreditor for these states, allows institutions to launch reduced-credit pilot programs, with some safeguards, including requiring a prefix in a program’s name to distinguish it from a regular bachelor’s degree.
“At a time when nationwide and across New England, states are moving forward with carefully controlled pilots, this decision risks leaving Connecticut less competitive in addressing workforce shortages and expanding access to higher education,” Jennifer Widness, president of the Connecticut Conference of Independent Colleges, wrote in an email. “These concerns are further compounded by significant demographic challenges and broader headwinds facing higher education, including declining numbers of traditional college-age students and international students as well as increasing financial pressures on institutions.”
Widness said that about half of the independent Connecticut colleges her organization represents are interested in launching three-year degrees, with two or three of them planning to seek NECHE accreditation to launch as soon as possible.
Several institutions submitted testimony in favor of the bill, with several noting that they hope to create programs that can target Connecticut’s unique workforce needs. The state hospital association also supported the legislation, arguing it would help expand the health-care workforce.
A Temporary Setback?
Three-year degrees, which are designed to allow students to enter the workforce more quickly and pay less for college, have long been a controversial topic, but they have gained greater acceptance in recent years. More than 60 institutions have introduced or plan to soon introduce such programs, according to the College-in-3 Exchange. The nation’s main regional accreditors all now have frameworks for three-year programs, as do many states, some of which are strongly encouraging institutions to develop the programs.
At the same time, the large majority of three-year programs are focused on explicitly career-aligned majors, such as pre–physical therapy, criminal justice and cybersecurity, and most institutions only offer a handful of reduced-credit majors.
Sen. Derek Slap, a Democrat and one of the co-chairs of the state higher ed committee, wrote in an emailed statement that the bill as written did not address the concerns Democrats had about these degrees. The text of the bill included no guardrails about what kind of programs could be reduced to 90 credits, how many programs an institution would include, what a review of those programs would entail or what the programs could be called.
“There are real concerns about redefining a bachelor’s degree and reducing the academic standards for a liberal arts education by 25 percent,” Slap wrote. “Will the degree have value to employers? What will the name be so as to avoid confusion with 120-credit bachelor degrees? Will graduate schools recognize these degrees? Would the slimmed down Bachelor degrees satisfy professional requirements for certain careers? Are students—and society—ultimately better off if electives, study abroad, capstone projects and other enrichment opportunities are scuttled in order to join the workforce faster? Are there better pathways to graduating in 3 years, like dual and concurrent enrollment programs—which we are in the process of strengthening? Are community college [sic] the more appropriate place to offer these degrees?”
He said that the graduation and career outcomes of the first three-year degrees—online programs at Brigham Young University–Idaho and Ensign College that began in spring 2024—are not yet known.
Democratic representative Greg Haddad, the other co-chair, told Inside Higher Ed in an interview if the bill came back next session, he would want to see more safeguards, including disallowing the word “bachelor’s” to be included in the title of the degree. (Wilcox, the WestConn professor, is married to another Democratic committee member.)
Rep. Seth Bronko, a Republican representative and ranking member of the committee, said he was disappointed the legislation did not move forward, adding that it seemed to have broad support from members of his own party.
“We talk a lot about cost of higher education and wanting to streamline people into the workforce, so I thought this 90-credit degree was a pretty good way to accomplish both of those tasks,” he said in an interview. Bronko added that he believes the issue will be reintroduced next legislative session, as three-year degrees continue to expand nationwide.
