March 14

MSU Moorhead
Office of the President
203 Owens Hall
1104 Seventh Ave. S.
Moorhead, MN 56563
(218) 477-2243

March 14, 2003

To: The Campus Academic Community

From: President Barden

Re: Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science – What is the proper threshold credit requirement?

A couple of months ago, I asked the Academic Policy and Advisory Committee to consider the possibility of reducing the total number of credits required for achieving a Bachelor of Arts degree at Minnesota State University Moorhead. And, perhaps there are some Bachelor of Science degree programs that should be considered, too.

There are several reasons that I believe it is prudent for the University to reduce the total number of required credits from 128 to 124 or 120.

1) MnSCU Board Policy states that a Baccalaureate degree may be awarded at the level of 120 total credits:

“A Baccalaureate degree may be awarded after the successful completion of a program of 120 to 128 semester credits. At least one-third of the required credits for the degree shall be in non-major areas of general education, including the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum. At least one-third of the required credits for the degree shall be upper-division credits. At least 30 semester credits shall be taught by the faculty recommending the awarding of the degree. This requirement may be decreased upon recommendation by the faculty and approval by the president. The Chancellor must approve program credit lengths that exceed 128 semester credits.

· The Bachelor of Arts (BA) shall represent a general liberal arts degree with a major in the liberal or fine/performing arts areas.

· The Bachelor of Science (BS) shall represent a degree with a major in a professional area other than the liberal or fine/performing arts.

· The Board of Trustees may also consider programs culminating in a more specified baccalaureate degree such as the Bachelor of Music (BMus), Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), the Bachelor of Elective Studies (BES), the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW), the Bachelor of Nursing (BSN), or another more specified baccalaureate degree.”

2) Most MSUM students take more credits than is necessary to graduate.

At MSUM, most of our students graduate with more than the currently necessary 128 credits. Consider the following data for Spring 2002 graduates:

BA Degree BS Degree

128 Credits: 44 graduates (29%) 54 graduates (15%)

129-138 Credits: 59 graduates (39%) 119 graduates (33%)

139+ Credits: 49 graduates (32%) 188 graduates (52%)

Total graduates: 152 361

On average, students who graduated with a BA degree in Spring 2002, did so with a total of 138.5 credits. For those graduating with a BS degree, the average total number of credits was 147.56.

We appear to foster a culture that encourages students to take more courses than is necessary. This prolongs their graduation, increases the amount of tuition they pay, increases the state subsidy they consume, and also translates into lost earnings for students foregoing a salaried position in lieu of extending their stay in school.

We aren’t alone in the phenomenon.

Mark Yudof, former president of the University of Minnesota, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that taking the long road is ingrained in students at public universities. He says that “what is missing is the principle that students should remain focused on earning a degree on schedule, even while dabbling in interesting courses outside of their majors. ‘The culture here is that you can almost go on and on,’ Mr. Yudof says,” (November 9, 2001, Chronicle of Higher Education, available online).

3) Reducing required credits can mean improved student success.

The University of Wisconsin System announced last year that through a system-wide effort to improve educational quality and increase efficiency, they improved three measures of student success: credits-to-degree, time-to-degree, and graduation rates.

80 percent of the UW-S baccalaureate degree programs require 120 credits for a degree. The system reported that the average number of credits attempted by

UW-S students dropped from 145 to 137 since the 1993-94 academic year. The system’s report indicates that the drop reduces the time students take to complete their degrees and improves graduation rates. The proportion of graduates who completed their degrees in four years increased from 21 percent to 33 percent, the report indicated. The 6-year graduation rate is 60.5 percent for the 1995 cohort. (Note that at MSUM, the 6-year graduation rate for the fall 1996 cohort is 42.5 percent.) For the full report, see UW System Office of Policy Analysis and Research, May 2002, Institutional Efficiency and Student Success: The relationship between credits-to-degree, time-to-degree, and graduation rates.

4) Reducing the number of credits does not affect the perceived quality of a baccalaureate degree.

Critics of the idea of reducing MSUM’s 128 credit requirement suggest that the MSUM degree will be “watered down” simply because we require fewer credits. As evidence, critics cite examples of other institutions that require 128 or more credits for a Baccalaureate degree.

Many internationally respected institutions require their students to complete fewer credits than 128 for a degree:

· At the University of Minnesota, for example, students in the College of Liberal Arts must complete 120 credits to graduate.

· At the University of Wisconsin Madison in the College of Letters and Science, students must complete 120 credits to graduate.

· At Kansas State University in the College of Arts and Sciences, students must complete 120 credits to graduate.

· At the University of Nebraska in the College of Arts and Sciences, students must complete 125 credits to graduate.

· At the University of Kansas, in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications, students must earn 124 credits to graduate.

· At the University of Kansas in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, students must earn 124 credits to graduate.

We are not among the first institutions to consider reducing the number of credits required for a baccalaureate degree. Beginning in fall 1996, the Florida State University System reduced most of its bachelors programs to 120 hours in response to the emphasis on accountability and the time it takes to earn a baccalaureate degree. (See Pitter, G. W. May 1996, “Hours to graduation: A national survey of credit hours required for baccalaureate degrees,” available in ERIC)

5) Our students need some sort of financial relief.

State subsidy per FYE student is decreasing, and to offset the loss of state support, tuition is increasing, perhaps 10% or more in fall 2003 (this, after increasing 9.5 percent in fall 2002). Family income certainly is not increasing at the same pace as the price of tuition.

Do not doubt the financial burden of our students; consider the following (data is current as of March 10, 2003):

· 79% of MSUM students receive financial aid, almost all of which is a loan—that is, a deferred payment plan.

· 28% of MSUM students are Pell Grant recipients (federal funding for the neediest students).

· 41% of MSUM students are Minnesota residents receiving Minnesota Grants (state funding for needy students).

· Of MSUM students applying for financial aid:

o 65% come from families earning less than $60,000 a year.

o 37% come from families earning $35,000 or less each year.

o The average family income $52,167 (this figure includes all sources of parent and student income).

· 4% of dependent MSUM students come from families earning less than $15,000 a year.

· 30% of independent MSUM students have a family income of less than $14,000 a year.

When students graduate from MSUM, they shoulder a large debt burden – especially considering that most of our students will enter professions that are not highly paid. Upon graduation, our students have the following average education debt (not including credit card debt or loans from private sources):

· 1992=$8,618

· 1993=$9,165

· 1994=$10,611

· 1995=$10,611

· 1996=$10,762

· 1997-2000 (data not available)

· 2001=$16,584

· 2002=$17,369

Finally, consider the relationship between the actual direct costs of attending MSUM (based on tuition and fees for 15 credits, room and board, and books) and financial aid in the following chart. Funding for Minnesota State Grants has not kept pace with the increases in funding for Pell Grants. The proportion of grant funding provided by the state dropped for MSUM students from 31.66 percent in 1995-96 to 18.77 percent in 2002-03.

Surely, in those cases where educational objectives can be met with less than 128 credits, the MSUM academic community needs to adjust its requirement and extend fiscal relief to our students.