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CT lawmakers rejected 3-year bachelor’s degrees.But the trend isn’t going away.The committee of Connecticut lawmakers responsible for higher education bucked a national trend this year when it tabled a proposal that would have allowed colleges and universities in the state to offer three-year bachelor’s degrees.Over the last few years, an increasing number of higher education institutions across the country have begun adopting some form of the three-year degree, including several in Connecticut’s neighboring states.In March 2024, the New England Commission of Higher Education, which is responsible for accrediting colleges and universities in the Northeast, created guidelines for colleges that want to implement these programs.The diverging opinions that arose during a public hearing in Hartford this spring revealed a host of concerns, from cost to quality to workforce needs.At the heart of the discussion lay a deeper question around the purpose of higher education and the best way to equip young people with the skills they’ll need, professionally and personally, as they enter adulthood.Some college administrators say a three-year degree program would lower the cost of college, decrease the likelihood of students dropping out, and help more quickly fill gaps in critical areas of the workforce.But critics of offering the shorter course of study say traditional four-year programs expose students to a broader range of educational experiences, which helps foster their critical thinking skills and produces graduates who are more adaptable to the ever-changing professional world.State Sen.Derek Slap, a West Hartford Democrat who co-chairs the legislature’s Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee, expressed concern that three-year programs might lessen the value and rigor of a bachelor’s degree.And he said it remained unclear whether the degrees would be accepted by graduate schools and certain employers.“Are students and society better off if things like electives, study abroad, capstone projects, other enrichment opportunities are all scuttled to join the workforce a little faster?” Slap said in an interview with the Connecticut Mirror.Seth Bronko, R-Naugatuck, disagreed that the reduced credits would jeopardize the integrity of the degree, citing the fact that other schools are piloting these programs.“ We talk about trying to find ways to make college more affordable and streamline the pipeline into in-demand jobs.And in my opinion, this is one way to do it,” Bronko said.“Just pumping students through a traditional four year college program, sending them into debt, for kids who don’t even know what they want to do — I think is not the wisest decision.” While the legislation failed to advance this year, the debate didn’t end there.Why are bachelor’s degrees four years?The 120-degree standard for a bachelor’s degree became popularized in the early 1900s.In the late 1860s, then-Harvard president Charles Eliot introduced the idea of elective courses to an educational system that had, until then, a uniform curriculum for everyone.With elective classes came the need to establish criteria for an educational degree that could include multiple different subjects.In the first decade of the 20th century, industrialist Andrew Carnegie established the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which funded a pension program for professors.In order to be eligible, however, the college or university had to adopt the Carnegie Unit as a standard educational measurement.One credit hour became equal to an hour of classwork per week for 15 weeks, or the length of a semester.A Bachelor’s Degree became equal to 120 credit hours.The Carnegie Unit also became the standard for high school education, equating to 120 hours of class or study time per year.In the hundred years since, higher education institutions have added a range of shorter degree and non-degree programs from associate’s degrees to certificates, microcredentials, apprenticeships and more.But for many college and university educators, the completion of a bachelor’s degree implies a breadth of knowledge and a depth of understanding that it takes time to achieve.Kristen Morgan, a professor of communication, film and media at Eastern Connecticut State University, said she worried the 90-credit bachelor’s degree would create a “two-tiered system” where people with more money could pursue traditional bachelor’s degrees while lower-income students might opt for the shorter — more economical — program.Morgan told lawmakers the addition of these options could force institutional changes, like larger class sizes or faculty being expected to take on more work.She also said it might incentivize more part-time faculty positions and fewer high-level elective offerings, like the kind of workshops and seminars where students build their professional portfolios.“That’s something that I would worry about, especially in the arts and the humanities,” she said.Leah Glaser, a history professor at Central Connecticut State University, said she felt elective courses were important because they give students the opportunity to explore things in depth that they’re unfamiliar with, in a way they may not have access to at any other time in their lives.“I can see limiting [electives] to an extent.But not for an entire year,” Glaser said.“You need some flexibility for somebody to change their mind, because an 18-year-old won’t necessarily come in knowing what they want to do.” Beyond providing opportunities to explore a range of fields, a liberal arts education also helps students learn to think critically, Glaser said.“If you train somebody to do [only] one thing … you’re not going to have a resilient worker,” she said.Glaser and others said there should be other ways to make four years of college education more affordable for students who want to pursue it, such as expanded financial aid or cutting down on “top-heavy” administrative costs.Slap pointed to programs already available to students such as dual enrollment classes, which allow high-schoolers to take college courses, and debt-free community college, which provides scholarship funding for students who graduate from high school in Connecticut and enroll in one of the public community colleges.Tackling two challenges: time and cost Proponents of the three-year bachelor’s degree say they would solve several problems.They cost less, and the shorter timeframe can be an effective way to keep students on track to completing a degree — particularly for students who already know what they want to do after they graduate.Quinnipiac University Provost Debra Liebowitz noted during the public hearing that college enrollment had been dropping since 2011 — a reflection, she said, of “a growing skepticism about the value” of a four-year degree.She said 90-credit bachelor’s degrees were designed to “complement, not to devalue” traditional four-year degree programs.She and other university administrators said adopting these degrees would be necessary for institutions to remain competitive in the higher education market.Drew McWeeney, a professor of early childhood education at Central Connecticut State University, said he felt a 90-credit degree could maintain academic quality and standards while eliminating courses that are irrelevant to a given field of study.McWeeney said students in early childhood education don’t need to take classes in calculus or read Victorian literature.They need classes that help them teach elementary math and write things like developmental evaluations and progress reports.“It’s not … the amount of courses that determine student success, in my opinion.It’s about the content of what is actually being taught,” McWeeney said.McWeeney also argued that a bachelor’s degree was no guarantee that someone might find employment — particularly in the humanities.“Look at how many students have liberal arts degrees and music, theater, English, and they can’t find jobs,” McWeeney said