STATE UNIVERSITIES PLAN THREE YEAR DEGREE

Bangor Daily News - The University of Maine System board of trustees is hoping the introduction of a three-year baccalaureate program, an increase in online students, and other measures meant to raise revenues and cut costs can help overcome a projected $42.8 million shortfall in the next four years. The program will include regular courses, an expanded summer course schedule and online classes. The target date for implementation is next fall.

USA Today - At the American Council on Education's annual meeting earlier this month, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. and a former university president, pressed college presidents to offer three-year degrees. In Rhode Island, legislators are considering a bill that would create a standard set of college-level classes for high schools, so all students could have an opportunity to finish college in three years.

Three years is the norm for undergraduate degrees in Europe, and a handful of U.S. colleges offer variants of a three-year program, including Judson College in Alabama, Manchester College in Indiana, and Seattle University. Others, such as Bates College in Maine, offer highly qualified students some three-year options. . .

Still, the idea has hardly caught fire, despite rising college costs. Students seem to like spending at least four years in college.

When Upper Iowa University offered the option a few years ago, just five students took it - but all decided to stay four years after all. Nobody has signed up since.

A three-year degree "would be attractive to someone who knows right now what they want to do with the rest of their lives," said Lincoln Morris, Upper Iowa's vice president for enrollment management. "Most students don't have it all figured out right now, and that's fine."

Also in Iowa, Waldorf College has graduated several hundred in three-year programs over the years, but is now phasing out its last one. Most students wanted the full four-year experience - academically, socially, athletically.

"What we're finding they're saying is, 'Why did I want to grow up so fast?"' said spokeswoman Joy Newcom.