Two area colleges to offer three-year degrees

In response to concern about rising college costs, two local universities plan to allow students to earn degrees in three years, saving them up to a year in tuition and room and board, and getting them into the earning market sooner.

Arcadia University in Glenside said yesterday that it would offer three-year degrees in five of its 40 or so undergraduate programs, beginning in the fall. The programs are business administration, communications, international business and culture, international studies, and psychology.

Holy Family University, in the Torresdale section of Philadelphia, will start more slowly, with one three-year degree program in business administration this fall, officials said. There are eight possible majors within the program.

Arcadia and Holy Family are among a growing number of colleges around the country looking to gain a competitive edge with less costly options for students.

At Arcadia, tuition and room and board total almost $44,000 this year, while Holy Family charges about $33,000.

"There's a market out there, particularly since the cost of college has grown so much," said Richard Vedder, director of the Center for College Affordability and Productivity in Washington. "It's starting to get on the radar screen."

Popular in Europe, the three-year degree has been gaining in popularity in the United States in recent months.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), a former U.S. secretary of education and university president, touted three-year degrees in a Newsweek article last fall. Rhode Island in recent months mandated that two of its public universities offer three-year degree options.

Last month, Mount Olive College in North Carolina, a small private school, announced a three-year option. Hartwick College in New York, Lipscomb University in Nashville, Georgia Perimeter College, and Chatham University in Pittsburgh have announced or begun offering three-year programs.

Moore College of Art and Design also is considering such a program, a spokeswoman said yesterday.

Vedder said smaller private colleges with higher tuition bills than public schools seemed to be leading the way, and business-minded students less interested in a full undergraduate experience were supplying the market.

"There are an awful lot of people for whom college is a serious business of getting a degree to increase employment prospects," he said.

Arcadia and Holy Family are opening the programs to students who meet special admission requirements.

At Arcadia, students must have a minimum of 1870 on their reading, math, and writing SAT, and rank in the top 10 percent of their class.

Holy Family will require a 3.0 GPA and a minimum of 950 on the reading and math SAT. About 30 percent of the students in Holy Family's accepted pool would be eligible, estimated Jan Duggar, dean of the business school.

Students must maintain academic standards to stay in the program.

Arcadia began considering the option before the downturn in the economy, but then sped creation of the programs, said president Jerry Greiner.

"We really are continuously looking at ways to reduce the cost of what we do," he said.

The university also is trying to hold down tuition increases, he said. It had planned to raise tuition, room, and board 6.9 percent for next year, but made cuts and reduced the hike to 4.2 percent, he said.

Students in the program will take 16 to 20 credits a semester; the norm for a four-year degree is 16 credits. Arcadia officials explained that students who came in with college credit from high school courses would take fewer classes.

They also will be required to do two summer-learning experiences domestically or abroad - one an internship, the other a service-learning project for credit. The university has topped national lists for the number of study-abroad experiences by its students for years, and it wants to preserve that, Greiner said.

Just how much students will save with the three-year degree program varies.

Even if they must take more courses over the summer, it costs less to live on campus then and less to take classes, Greiner said.

Students will save a year of room and board, plus have an extra year to work or attend graduate school, he said.

If they do their required summer programs locally rather than abroad, it also will cost less.

At Holy Family, students will take 18 credit hours a semester and 12 credit hours over two summers.

Students would save $25,000 if they needed to take summer courses, Duggar said. As at Arcadia, some students may have enough credits through advanced high school programs, he said, and could save the full $33,000. Or they could take summer classes online or at a community college at a lower cost, he said.

Enrolled students will get special educational and career advising along the way, Duggar said.

Duggar, who promoted the idea at Holy Family, acknowledged that the program was a marketing tool in a higher-education system where the number of high school graduates has begun to drop.

"We want to be on the competitive edge, and we want to serve students the best way we can," he said.