Task force recommendations on state board’s June meeting agenda
By: Tim Carpenter
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The Kansas Board of Regents plans to vote in mid-June on a proposal authorizing the six state universities to offer students the option of earning undergraduate degrees by completing as little as 90 credit hours of classes rather than the traditional minimum of 120 credit hours.
The Board of Regents has been studying the concept of accelerated bachelor’s degree programs since last fall. The goal would be to hustle students to graduation in response to the rising cost of higher education and evolving workforce demands. Under the draft of a Kansas task force’s reduced-credit plan, students could complete specific degrees in three years and save money on tuition, fees and housing costs before moving more swiftly into the job market.
The tax force met from October to April before recommending the Board of Regents approve policies guiding a reduced-credit pilot program that would last three years.
“These programs are intended to maintain an academic rigor and learning outcomes associated with the traditional bachelor’s degree while creating a more efficient pathway for our students,” said Jenn Bonds-Raacke, vice president for academic affairs with the Board of Regents.
Throughout internal deliberations, questions emerged about sustaining academic standards while cutting 30 hours of classes from four-year degrees. Controversy exists on what to call the innovative degrees and how to differentiate a reduced-credit degree from the four-year version on transcripts and job applications. Anxiety exists about the danger of lowering public confidence in the value of a public university bachelor’s degree in Kansas.
The decision before the Board of Regents centers on development of consistent student expectations, alignment with workforce trends and implications for transferring credits and considering institutional accreditation. The board would need to sort out whether to limit the degree option to technical, skill-based disciplines or broaden it to offerings throughout universities.
Board of Regents member John Dicus said he didn’t understand how the system would shift from focusing intently on student retention under four-year programs to driving students through universities in less time.
“Now we’re trying to get students off of campus quicker? How does that play out in the full scope of the university in offering an education to all students?” he said.
Bonds-Raacke said potential retention issues could be lessened among students enrolled in reduced-credit-hour programs because those students tended to be more focused and goal-oriented.
University of Kansas Chancellor Doug Girod said students earning an accelerated 90 credit-hour degree would need to understand they would lose one year of eligibility for financial aid. In addition, he said, a shortened undergraduate degrees couldn’t be used to propel the recipient into most graduate schools.
“You cannot go on to a master’s degree with one of these degrees,” Girod said.
Under the task force’s recommendations, the shortened degrees couldn’t fall below 90 credit hours and universities would have to accept as many as 60 credit hours in transfer credits tied to associate degrees in business administration, management and operations, computer science, elementary education, nursing and social work.
Current Board of Regents policy says bachelor’s degrees required 45 upper-division credit hours within a 120 credit-hour program — equivalent to 37.5% of the total. The task force says the same percentage should be applied to the new 90 credit-hour degrees outside of the half-dozen tied to previously imposed transfer agreements, which mean at least 34 upper-division credit hours would be necessary to graduate.
The task force recommended universities submitting proposals for accelerated bachelor’s degrees demonstrate sufficient market demand for graduates, but no cap on the number of degrees in the pilot project should be imposed.
The Board of Regents shouldn’t adopt a naming convention that included the word “accelerated” to describe pilot programs, the task force said. Instead, the task force recommended, specialized degrees ought to be designated as an RCBD or a reduced-credit bachelor’s degree.
“I’d be interested in hearing the viewpoint of employees on this topic,” said Board of Regents member Blake Benson, who serves as chairman. “I can see them supporting it because it gets employees to them quicker, but I also would wonder if they would have confusion related to what exactly a bachelor’s degree means.”
Board of Regents’ staff have been working with Fort Hays State University to conduct a survey of 3,200 businesses in Kansas to determine interest in graduates who earned an abbreviated degree. Results of the survey won’t be published until fall 2026.
“How would an employer distinguish between someone who did the reduced-credit degree and the full credit?” asked Board of Regent member Kathy Wolfe Moore. “I’m assuming the full credit would have value to it or else it wouldn’t be offered.”
In September, Kansas State University attempted to move the needle on 90 credit-hour degrees by proposing an undergraduate program in uncrewed aircraft systems.