While some students celebrate the practice as being affordable, academics and industry leaders have expressed concern about how super-accelerated degrees put students in position to miss out on key information and experiences that four-year students receive.
Educators are sounding the alarm about adult students earning their online college degrees — which take an average of 4 years to complete — in a matter of weeks, The Washington Post reports.
U.S.-based colleges and universities have experimented with practices to accelerate traditional college programs, referred to as “degree hacking,” in an effort to reduce costs and help students enter the workforce faster. With some degrees being completed in three years, the practice has resulted in students like Christie Williams finishing in three months.
“It’s kind of a no-brainer if you know about it.”
While people like Williams celebrate the phenomenon as affordable, academics and industry leaders have expressed concern that super-accelerated degrees put students at risk of missing out on key information and experiences that four-year students receive. “We want diplomas that mean something,” Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, representing over liberal arts colleges and universities, said.
“I would prefer to have some of these degrees called something other than a bachelor’s.”
The president of the New England Commission of Higher Education, Larry Schall, also raised concerns. “If students are getting a baccalaureate degree in a few months, the commission could certainly inquire, ‘Is there integrity to the degree to be awarded?’” he questioned, according to Live Mint.
Because cheating concerns have intensified, some schools, like Purdue Global, have imposed limits on the number of classes students can take per term, arguing that these restrictions won’t undermine academic integrity or the value of degrees. Even Western Governors students have joined the conversation on platforms like Reddit, pressuring others to stop celebrating how quickly they obtained their degrees.
As YouTube influencers and coaches are charging as little as $5 for how-to guides, students warn that the boasting puts a damper on the school’s reputation.
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Source: Black Enterprise
