Three-year bachelor’s degrees are no longer just a thought experiment. In my home state of Massachusetts, the Board of Higher Education announcement in February, it will accept pilot proposals for these three-year degrees.
Nationwide, at least one American institution is now expandable formats in all its specializations, and a growing number of admissions officers in graduate schools appear open to admit students with a bachelor’s degree requiring 90 credits instead of the traditional 120.
In the United States, college is becoming more and more expensive, and the three-year degree is a response to this pressure. The three-year degree could offer real savings in time and money for many students. But these degrees don’t exist in a vacuum: If they gain traction in the United States, they will likely be judged primarily on their acceptance by graduate admissions offices and hiring committees, as well as their performance in other future selection processes.
I’m not predicting that American three-year degrees will fail outright, but there are some things worth thinking about carefully. Choices made now will determine how well these benchmarks deliver on their promises later.
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Friction between three-year degrees and four-year expectations is nothing new. Indian three-year bachelor’s degree holders have long experienced a wide range of outcomes in U.S. graduate admissions processes. Some Indian applicants were admitted directly into the program of their choice, while others received conditional acceptance with additional course requirements, perhaps through an postgraduate diploma (PGDip) — a short degree designed (in part) to bridge the gap between Indian three-year bachelor’s degrees and American expectations.
PGDips are not an afterthought in the Indian higher education ecosystem. They appear as a separate title in federal and institutional reporting, rather than being grouped into other categories such as master’s or graduate certificate programs.
In the meantime, Global Education Services (an international credential evaluation service) recognizes that some Indian three-year bachelor’s degrees may be considered equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree only under specific conditions, recalling that U.S. universities ultimately set their own admissions policies.
If India, a country that has invested heavily in its higher education system and developed a bridge degree, still cannot ensure consistent global recognition of its three-year bachelor’s degrees, that should give U.S. institutions pause before proceeding.
Here’s a further complication: While the United States is experimenting with three-year degrees, India appears to be moving in the other direction. India National Education Policy (NEP) 2020a sweeping federal reform intended to reshape education from early childhood through higher education, clearly endorses expanded four-year undergraduate formats. It’s hard to ignore the irony of this disconnect.
Global trends aside, three-year degrees in the United States could work well for students. But I suspect some graduates will only discover later that they need an additional degree, additional courses or a bridging program (like the PGDip) to access the opportunities they thought were available. Fourth grade is not eliminated in these scenarios; it is simply postponed later. At this point, why not just get a four-year degree from the start?
Related: Momentum is building behind a way to lower the cost of college: a three-year degree
If the United States moves away from the four-year model that others appear to be actively trying to adopt, it risks replicating the same uncertainties that international students, like those in India, have long faced. Some considerations may include:
- The challenge of different evaluation practices. Graduate and professional programs are currently inconsistent in how they evaluate three-year degrees, for example, and yet three-year degrees are actively marketed as viable pathways to advanced study.
- The equivalence is unlikely to be resolved automatically. Obtaining these three-year degrees may depend in part on where these programs emerge. Institutional reputation can affect the perception of legitimacy when launching a new program.
- General education courses and electives are often omitted from abbreviated bachelor’s degree programs. Clarity about these academic choices and their implications for learning will help students evaluate the trade-offs involved.
- Because students actively accept uncertainty in exchange for lower costs, detailed information on graduate admissions and labor market outcomes should be disseminated to prospective three-year students as soon as it becomes available.
As it stands, in global admissions and hiring contexts, degree length still often serves as an indicator of preparedness, sometimes reasonably, sometimes not.
Acceptance of three-year degrees could certainly be a significant step toward making American higher education more affordable. It is to their credit that those who advocate the three-year degree seem to be showing responsibility. transparent about the risks involved. But good intentions are not proof.
Until more evidence is available, the promotion of three-year degrees is asking students to take a real risk in exchange for something that has not yet been proven.
John Anderson is associate director of admissions at the Fletcher School at Tufts University in Massachusetts.
Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.
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The article OPINION: Three-year degrees could become a viable option in the United States, but questions about their value remain appeared first in the Hechinger report.
