Public higher ed faculty, staff sound the alarm on watered-down bachelor’s degrees

Nearly 100 public college and university faculty and staff members throughout Massachusetts have submitted testimony to the state Board of Higher Education, opposing the potential approval of programs that would grant bachelor’s degrees that require just over 90 credits, versus the standard of 120 credits. These programs threaten to narrow higher education and deny students the broad skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in the future economy.

The higher education faculty and staff — who work at Massachusetts community colleges, state universities and UMass and are Massachusetts Teachers Association members — are urging the board to delay its vote on these harmful degrees. The vote, which is scheduled for Friday, June 26, will be whether to approve lower-credit bachelor’s degree programs at Merrimack College (a proposed 96 credits) and at Suffolk University (94 credits).

In their testimonies, faculty and staff expressed concern that the proposal could create a two-tiered higher education system in Massachusetts, erode the state’s reputation for academic excellence, and leave graduates insufficiently prepared for graduate study or the workforce, particularly in an era increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. A petition that advocates for the value of protecting traditional bachelor’s degrees had more than 1,135 signatures this week.

“In my career I’ve taught at both private and public universities, including Yale, Northeastern and a small liberal arts college,” said Rachel Trousdale, an English professor at Framingham State University. “I’ve been continually struck by the difference in resources available to students from lower-income backgrounds, even once they reach college, and I have long been an advocate for making higher education more affordable. But the way to do that is not to give students less education. These students don’t need streamlined degrees that prioritize speeding through college as fast as possible; they need systemic support, skills building and — most importantly — the opportunity to engage in the kind of rigorous, challenging intellectual exploration that is the real point of a college education.”

Under the proposed plans, the most financially vulnerable students may disproportionately opt for the weaker degree, creating deep inequities and widening the opportunity gap in our state.

Heike Schotten, a faculty member at UMass Boston, said her students are already disadvantaged enough by work requirements. “It’s distressing to me that this proposal is in some sense aimed at low-income or working-class students,” Schotten said. “My students are already disadvantaged by having to work full-time while taking classes. To offer them less of an education, as if it were an accommodation of that disadvantage rather than a kind of enhancement of it, is at best dishonest and at worst cruel. If the Commonwealth wants to support low-income and working-class students, it should properly fund public higher education so that UMass Boston has the same resources and support for its students that the privates do.”

Thirty fewer credits means fewer electives, less general education and reduced majors, gutting the well-rounded degree that equips students for a rich civic and professional life.

Tammy King, a faculty member at Bridgewater State University, said the proposal would weaken undergraduate education. “As someone representing science faculty, I am concerned that 90-credit degrees would significantly weaken undergraduate education,” said King, who teaches in the Chemical Sciences Department. “In the STEM field, especially, cutting credits means less depth in core subjects and fewer opportunities for labs, research and hands-on learning — things that simply cannot be compressed without loss.”

Kevin Young, an associate professor of history at UMass Amherst, said the proposals for a reduced-credit bachelor’s degree were alarming. “If approved, I feel they will degrade the quality of higher education in our state,” Young said. “The solution to financial difficulty is not to lower our standards or further reduce the place of liberal arts in our curricula. The solution is stronger public funding, administered democratically at the campus level. We can easily provide debt-free higher education — or better yet, free higher education for all — rather than joining the race to the bottom.”

“The implied idea in all of these programs is that the core curriculum is somehow not suited to the needs of the fast-changing world that students are encountering, said Courtney Cahalan, an assistant professor of English at Bristol Community College. “This is simply not true,” Cahalan added. “In a world warped by social media and the influence of corporate dollars through AI-generation understandings of what the right conduct is, the capacity for students to develop and grow in the reflective learning process of defining and redefining their place in the world through critical thinking is needed more now than ever before.”

Max Page, president of the MTA, said: “The Merrimack and Suffolk degree proposals threaten to undermine what Massachusetts is known for: providing the best education in the country. Reducing the credit requirement would compromise both the quality and the purpose of higher education in the Commonwealth. Our 120-credit bachelor’s degrees reflect national standards that integrate general education, major studies and opportunities for exploration. Compressing that structure undermines the promise of a higher education that enriches lives and supports civic life, economic development and social progress.”