Students are seen on the Gaebe Commons at Johnson & Wales University in downtown Providence. (Mike Cohea/Courtesy of Johnson & Wales University)
Johnson & Wales University (JWU) will start offering three-year bachelor’s degree programs next fall in four majors already popular on its Providence campus: computer science, criminal justice, hospitality and graphic design.
Accelerated bachelor’s degree programs already exist at some schools, like Regis College in Weston, Massachusetts, where a fast-track program compresses the 120 credits typically required into a much shorter timespan. The new JWU degree program, meanwhile, can be completed with 90 to 96 credits, freeing up students from the winter and summer course loads accelerated programs typically entail.
“This is an innovation and a different way about thinking about programs,” said Jennifer Galipeau, dean of the college of hospitality management and associate provost for academic affairs at JWU, in an interview Wednesday. “This creates an opportunity for the right student in the right situation to say, ‘Look, I really want to get into my career faster. It’s going to make a private education more affordable for me and my family. I want to leave with less debt.’”
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Sometimes, not even four years is enough for students to finish their college degree. Nearly 40% of students who entered a bachelor’s degree program at some point after graduating high school did not complete their studies within eight years, according to an April report from the National Center for Education Statistics. Census data from 2023 showed that in the U.S., 37.5% of people age 25 and up had a bachelor’s or higher degree.
Could a shorter program of study with less credits help students stay on track? With the first cohort of three-year students still a year away, that’s unclear, but JWU is boasting two major benefits for the truncated program: Students will get their degrees at a lower cost, since the program cuts off an entire year of tuition payments. Tuition for the 2024-2025 at the private university is $41,782, not including fees.
Graduates will also enter the workforce faster — something that could be appreciated by employers who are looking to multiply their workforce.
“Every conference I go to, or networking event, when I’m interacting with leadership in the hospitality industry, folks who own small businesses, folks who own or operate multinational corporations, they will say, ‘Where are your talented students? We need more people in this industry,’” Galipeau said. “They’re very hungry to have folks be able to come into the workforce very quickly and early on.”
General education courses will remain in the new baccalaureate program, though there are some sacrifices involved — mainly, elective courses or the ability to pursue a minor, Galipeau said. Credit-bearing internships often required for four-year degrees will be replaced by work or volunteer experiences that aren’t credited but degree requirements.
“Although many times they are making money when they’re doing their internship, they’re also paying for those credits while they’re here,” Galipeau said.
The less flexible program mirrors a recommendation from 2018 by the Progressive Policy Institute, who suggested that three-year degrees take a cue from British colleges, where students decide what they’ll study before their first year, something which “encourages an atmosphere of focus.”
Also in 2018, CNBC reported that at least 30 schools nationally offered three-year programs, and in the time since, a national movement has emerged under the leadership of College-in-3 Exchange. Schools participating in the exchange can be found in public universities in New Jersey, Utah, Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to Stateline. Other states like Indiana have recently pushed legislation that requires the state’s public universities to offer at least one three-year program within three years.
The Exchange’s Robert Zemsky gave a 2021 presentation on the possibilities of the three-year baccalaureate model at a New England Commission for Higher Education (NECHE) meeting. But it was only in March 2024 that New England’s accrediting body decided it would finally consider OKing three-year baccalaureate programs. Both Merrimack College in Massachusetts and New England College in New Hampshire were interested in the idea, the Boston Globe reported.
March was also when the regional higher ed commission put out a call to its member schools for 90-credit proposals as part of an innovation program, Galipeau said. JWU, which was in the process of shaping a new strategic plan, crafted and then submitted its 90-credit program in August and received approval in September.
“The commission itself is thinking about whether or not that 120 credits really should be the gold standard,” Galipeau said.
Although the school landed on four majors for the initial offering, Galipeau said other majors were considered, including media communications and culinary arts. More sped-up majors could be added in the future, but for now the focus will be on gauging the success of the first three-year cohort, who will graduate in 2028. Accreditor NECHE will also be watching closely, Galipeau said, to ensure that career outcomes are comparable for students who take a full 120 credits.
Studying abroad
Also excluded from JWU’s new program: Study abroad opportunities, an omission in line with the 2018 Progressive Policy Institute report, which argued, “At today’s prices, a year of study abroad is an expensive way to discover what it’s like to live overseas.”
Said Galipeau, “When students choose to do a minor or do study abroad or those kinds of things, it’s really their choice and they’re pursuing their passions. Not every student will decide to do the three year program, 90-credit program.”
Three-year bachelor’s degrees are not so odd worldwide. In relatively wealthy, western European countries with strong histories of higher ed — France, Germany and most of the United Kingdom — students can often obtain a bachelor’s in three years, depending on the program of study. Three examples are the elite British schools Cambridge, Oxford, and the London School of Economics.
Still, the U.S. is not an outlier in its use of a four-year system, which also sees use in countries with a strong education sector like China and Japan. Many South American nations require four or more years. In Chile, for instance, undergraduate programs can last up to 13 semesters — five more than the U.S. requires.
Universities try 3-year degrees to save students time, money
The varied requirements across borders means exchange students sometimes have trouble transferring to advanced degree programs in the U.S., like Indian students whose three-year degrees from their home countries prove difficult to transfer overseas.
The perception that quicker degree programs could suggest lack of academic preparedness was not lost on Kenneth Mash, a political science professor at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania and union leader, who told Stateline in May that potential employers could perceive the abbreviated degrees as cheap.
“If it’s not going to be a four-year degree, they should name it something that indicates it’s not a B.A.,” said Mash. “We don’t know that employers will treat them the same…I’m on board, as most faculty are, with the notion that people want to increase their job opportunities. But that’s not all there is to a college degree. Degrees prepare you to be a better citizen, a better parent, and on and on.”
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