After conducting a state-mandated review of programs that attract small numbers of students, the University of Missouri at Columbia will reduce the number of degrees it offers by 16, the university announced Thursday. According to the Columbia Daily Tribune, the university will combine some programs—French and Spanish, for instance, will be merged in a Romance Languages department, and three agriculture-department programs will be rolled into one—while eliminating a handful of others, such as a doctorate in communication sciences and disorders. The university’s plan will require approval by the state’s Department of Higher Education and the Coordinating Board for Higher Education.
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Good. It is about time that programs that have no past nor future to go extinct. It is a tragedy to see sometimes good students being trapped in some fake graduate programs that serve only the purpose to keep in business some professors that should have never been involved in graduate programs.
The Miami Herald reported that Florida private university graduates make higher average initial salaries than public university grads. It reports that a Florida International University provost suggested that the reason may be “Degree Inventory” that ‘public school grads’ include more with less economically valued degrees. http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/01/1996875/study-less-earn-more-at-least.html
So, in tough economic times it may make economic sense to trim back or consolidate expensive departments or degrees that have lower demand. I’m thinking that they might be able to offer students caught in the lurch a related degree with a concentration in the abolished degree’s subject, or some similar accomodation.
Bernard Schuster
Arrive2.net
Twitter.com/arrive2_net