Community Colleges Want in on UNC System’s Push for 3-Year Degrees

The UNC System could soon offer accelerated undergraduate programs, joining a growing number of universities around the country that allow students to earn their degrees in three years instead of the traditional four. 

UNC System President Peter Hans told The Assembly that he believes the initiative will increase access to North Carolina’s public universities in an affordable way, particularly for older learners and students who do not enroll in college immediately after high school. The system has received proposals from eight of its 16 campuses for 18 accelerated degrees since announcing last month that it was “exploring the feasibility” of such programs.

But before that work gets too far down the line, some of the state’s community college presidents want a say.

In an April 9 letter obtained by The Assembly, Bladen Community College President Amanda Lee and Durham Technical Community College President JB Buxton urged officials with the state community college system to hold “immediate discussions” with the UNC System. Lee and Buxton sent the letter as president and vice president, respectively, of the N.C. Association of Community College Presidents. It’s addressed to Jeff Cox, president of the N.C. Community College System.

“We share the goals of access, affordability, and a focus on non-traditional and adult learners with President Hans and the UNC System,” they wrote. “In fact, those are pillars upon which the community college system has been built for the entirety of its existence.”

Specifically, Lee and Buxton want the community college and university systems to ensure there are clearly established pathways between two-year associate’s degrees and any accelerated university programs, akin to the existing transfer guidelines for traditional degrees. They would also like system leaders to discuss the possibility of also offering the three-year degrees at community colleges.

Lee and Buxton argued that discussions with the UNC System about those issues should “necessarily happen before proposals are finalized and planning grants awarded.”

“North Carolina needs to have a conversation, and we need to make a decision about whether or not we’re going to embrace this,” Lee told The Assembly. “What we hope, though, is that that’s a conversation that would include all of higher education and not just the university system.”

The N.C. Community College System did not respond to a request for comment about the letter. After dropping during the COVID-19 pandemic, enrollment has steadily rebounded across the two-year system, climbing to a seven-year high last fall. In an interview, Hans didn’t rule out new high-school graduates pursuing the UNC System’s accelerated degrees. But the programs’ stated focus on working students could draw a key population that the community colleges have long prioritized.

There are signs of collaboration already. Dan Harrison, the UNC System’s vice president for academic affairs, told The Assembly that Winston-Salem State University has proposed exploring transfer pathways from nearby Forsyth Technical Community College.

Buxton said by email that he and Lee welcome such partnerships. But they believe there’s more to be done.

“Efforts to increase bachelor’s attainment is a statewide and systems issue and we would hope it wouldn’t be up to individual actors to engage in collaboration, but would be an expectation of how the two systems operate,” Buxton wrote.

The idea of completing an undergraduate degree in three years isn’t new; colleges have long offered accelerated tracks to graduation, particularly for students who bring in enough credits from their pre-college studies. UNC Greensboro launched “UNCG in 3” in 2010, marketing it as a way for students to save money by shaving a year off their education.

But the UNC System’s latest proposal is a different flavor: it would reduce the number of credit hours students must take to earn their degrees from 120 to 90. Appetite for the programs is on the rise nationally, with every U.S. accrediting agency in recent years changing or clarifying their regulations to allow schools to offer them, per Inside Higher Ed. Indiana now requires public colleges to offer some three-year degrees.

Lee told The Assembly she and other community college presidents are well aware of the trends, but the UNC System’s push for reduced-credit degrees came as a surprise.

“The surprise for us was that the university system is talking about an initiative that would have been fantastic if we had talked about it together,” she said. “I think there’s a great opportunity with this to do something that could be very transformative, particularly in some of our rural, smaller areas, if we work together on it.”

Hans, who served as president of the community college system before moving to the UNC System, said he wanted to start conversations about the new degree programs with university faculty before involving other stakeholders. Once university officials finish reviewing the three-year degree proposals they’ve received, Hans said, he anticipates it will be a “natural outcome” for the two-year schools to get involved. 

Hans said he sees it as a way to align universities with the needs of the state’s workforce and to “demonstrate the value of higher education” at a time when many are questioning it. The programs that system officials choose will get grants of up to $20,000 to plan three-year degrees. “We’re going to fund as many good ideas as we receive,” Hans said. 

Still, Lee said she is concerned about a “misalignment” that might occur under the new programs. She said it will be important for the transfer pathways into the reduced-credit programs to be clearly defined, ensuring community-college students can graduate with the three-year degree in just one additional year. 

Otherwise, Lee said community college graduates could spend more time and money on their degrees than students who enroll directly in the accelerated programs.

Hans said university officials “would look to align all of that seamlessly as possible.”

“If innovative community colleges view this as an opportunity to be a force-multiplier, we want to encourage as much participation as possible in that, and there are existing arrangements in place to build upon that make that possible,” Hans said.

Also of concern, Lee said, is that courses like general-education requirements or internship experience that typically contribute to a well-rounded education might be cut in a reduced-credit program.

“It’s not as simple as us adding a year or the universities subtracting a year,” Lee said. “I think we need to be much more intentional with whatever we do, to meet the students and really prepare them for life.”

So far, there appear to be mixed ideas about what the accelerated degree offerings might include. Harrison said Fayetteville State University’s proposal for a business degree with a focus on artificial intelligence would preserve that school’s general-education requirements, while reducing the number of necessary electives. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which accredits North Carolina colleges, says member schools seeking to offer reduced-credit degrees must preserve “a proportional breadth of general education learning outcomes including critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills.”

Hans said that the new programs would be called “something different” than an associate’s or bachelor’s degree and that he is against “watering down” the quality of a four-year degree. (SACSCOC says schools should refer to the programs as “reduced-hour” or “abridged” bachelor programs “to ensure transparency.”)

Lee and Buxton’s letter also raised the idea of community colleges offering the degrees themselves, which would be a first for North Carolina but would mirror efforts underway in other states. Lee noted that college officials “still have a lot of conversations to have” about such a move and that it would require a change in state law, which currently limits community colleges to instruction in two-year programs.

Hans said community colleges are outside his purview, but he believes they “shouldn’t try to be universities; universities should be more like community colleges.” Still, Lee said letting community colleges offer three-year degrees would achieve aims similar to the UNC System’s, such as making it more convenient for working students in rural areas to earn degrees.

“We are very busy being very true to our mission,” Lee said. “What we want to do, though, is to be sure we’re meeting the students where they are.”