Presenters and panelists at the New England ...]]>

NEBHE will bring together hundreds of New England higher education, government and business leaders on Monday, Nov. 7, at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston to discuss the role of higher education in preparing the highly skilled workers that will drive innovation in the region.

Presenters and panelists at the New England Works conference will explore:

• What projections say about the gap between supply and demand in the New England labor market.
• The varied roles of different kinds of higher education institutions in preparing learners for a fast-changing 21st-century economy.
• Types of degrees the region's colleges and universities producing.
• How employers regard higher education in addressing labor force skills gaps.

Featured speakers include:

• U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
• Gov. Dannel P. Malloy (D-Conn.)
• Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Labor
• Carol Geary Schneider, President, Association of American Colleges and Universities
• Marlene B. Seltzer, President and CEO, Jobs for the Future
• Nicholas C. Donohue, President and CEO, Nellie Mae Education Foundation
• Eric Rosengren, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Early registration is now available.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst will offer formal, three-year bachelors degree programs in selected academic disciplines. Beginning next fall, first-year students seeking majors in Economics, Music and Sociology can elect to travel a shortened route to their diplomas; other programs (e.g. Linguistics, Dance and Spanish) could be added to this pilot program in the future.

UMass ...]]>

The University of Massachusetts Amherst will offer formal, three-year bachelors degree programs in selected academic disciplines. Beginning next fall, first-year students seeking majors in Economics, Music and Sociology can elect to travel a shortened route to their diplomas; other programs (e.g. Linguistics, Dance and Spanish) could be added to this pilot program in the future.

UMass Amherst emphasizes that in order to take advantage of the rigorous three-year option, students should have pursued Advanced Placement (AP) coursework in high school. AP credits, in addition to taking classes during at least one summer session, will make the abbreviated schedule possible.

Officials at UMass extol the financial benefits of such a program; most notably, participating students avoid the costs associated with a fourth year of college. In an era of rapidly increasing tuition and fees, they suggest, the three-year option provides an incentive for motivated students.

Three-year degree programs, however, could limit the student residential experience, study-abroad options, and—because of a requirement for summer school—opportunities to pursue not-for-credit summer internships or summer jobs. Proponents of the initiative focus on graduates’ quick entry into the workplace—a more attractive benefit, perhaps, when the economy is creating jobs.

Several other state university flagship campuses have had discussionsabout formalized three-year programs: the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Colorado at Boulder, to name two.  The state legislature in Rhode Island passed a bill in 2009 requiring that three-year degree programs be made available. Liberal arts colleges like Bates and Franklin and Marshall and a handful of other institutions like Southern New Hampshire University also offer three-year options.

But not all are sold on the three-year degree phenomenon. Carol Geary Schneider, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, told her colleagues in June that “The Three-Year Degree Is No Silver Bullet,” noting: “For the overwhelming majority of American college students, a mere three years of college study might leave them with a piece of paper, but not with a degree that has real value; it would foreclose their opportunity for a truly empowering education.”