Last week, Johnson & Wales University (JWU) in Rhode Island announcement launching the nation’s first three-year, in-person bachelor’s degree programs. While other institutions already offer three-year bachelor’s degrees, these programs are either exclusively online or requires 120 credit hours. JWU students will be able to earn a degree in computer science, criminal justice, graphic design and hospitality management in 90 to 96 credit hours.

The launch of the JWU program follows a recent outpouring of support for similar initiatives across the country. In March, the Utah Council of Higher Education allowed state colleges are considering creating three-year bachelor’s degrees. That same month, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb sign a law requiring each of the state’s four-year public colleges to examine its bachelor’s degree programs to determine whether they could be completed in three years.

Yet despite this growing momentum, whether three-year degrees will become more ubiquitous will depend on accreditors.

The New England Commission on Higher Education (NECHE), JWU’s accrediting body, approved the program in September. Similar programs at Merrimack College and New England College were approved by NECHE in March, but have not yet launched, according to The Boston Globe.

College accreditors have historically been reluctant to approve three-year programs. Before its three-year degree program was approved, New England College had its proposal rejected by the NECHE, which did not consider college programs of study of less than 120 hours to provide the equivalent value of a four-year degree, according to Inside higher education.

Critics of three-year degrees have expressed concerns that these programs would reduce interest in liberal arts courses, which may have personal value for students and faculty, but are of little use in the job market. Kenneth Mash, president of the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, said: State line that he has “a visceral disdain for this idea” because of the potential it presents in creating a two-tier system where only wealthy students have the privilege of receiving a full four-year education.

Robert Zemsky, professor at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder of College in 3a group of colleges and universities that advocate three-year degree programs, is one of the main voices of the three-year diploma movement. He says these programs could reduce the price of attendance by 25 percent while increasing completion and retention rates.

Regarding Mash’s criticism, Zemsky says Reason much of it comes from teachers’ unions who fear that “a three-year degree will reduce the number of teachers”, thereby harming their livelihoods.

“In a sense, they’re right,” Zemsky said, “but we’ve reached a point now where college is just too expensive and you have to start deciding what’s really important now. When you really look at it Most university programs, the courses offered are not those that students need, but those that professors want to teach. If we move away from this and produce student-centered programs, there will be better learning. , better retention and lower price.

Zemsky admits that while he believes three-year degrees could potentially contribute to completion and retention rates, there is not enough empirical data to support these claims. Thanks to a recently awarded grant, College-in-3 will soon begin exploring ways to verify these claims by testing them at more than 50 participating institutions that are in various stages of research and developing degree plans on three years, he said. Reason.

Education officials Zemsky spoke with called the three-year degree “liberating.” The College in 3 may currently only have about 50 members, but Zemsky is optimistic that that number will likely reach at least 100 over the next year and 500 over the next three years.

With exorbitant tuition costs at many colleges and universities, three-year degrees have become even more attractive to price-pressed students. Whether prospective students will have the choice of pursuing a three-year program now depends on both accrediting bodies and initiatives to provide more options for students.