Johnson & Wales University has become the latest institution to gain approval to offer bachelor’s degrees that require significantly fewer than 120 credits—and the first to win that approval from the New England Commission of Higher Education.
Johnson & Wales said the four degrees it would begin offering next fall —computer science, criminal justice, graphic design and hospitality management—would each require 90 to 96 credits, and that students would take the same general education courses and the same courses in their major as those seeking its standard degrees. The big difference is that learners in the accelerated programs “will count workplace experiences gained during the academic year and summers toward degree requirements and will take fewer or no elective classes.”
“Offering three-year bachelor’s degree programs with just 90 credits allows more students to begin their career journeys sooner—and with a lower financial obligation,” said Mim L. Runey, chancellor of Johnson & Wales. “This is what parents and students have been asking of higher education.”
The new degrees at Johnson & Wales are the latest in a fledgling movement to encourage colleges and universities to design and build academic programs that deliver faster, less expensive and—ideally—better degree programs for learners.
Few of these degrees have been approved so far, but accreditors have increasingly signaled a willingness to consider them, including the New England commission, which released guidelines in March under which it would consider approving bachelor’s degrees with fewer than 120 credits.
Lawrence Schall, president of the New England accreditor, said it has now approved three institutions to offer accelerated degrees under its guidelines. In addition to Johnson & Wales, they are Merrimack College and Plymouth State University.
