TERRE HAUTE — Indiana State University is already looking for ways to address “credit creep,” defined as the increasing number of classes college students must take to earn degrees.
“It’s an issue we’re already talking about,” said ISU Provost Jack Maynard.
At ISU, President Dan Bradley created a task force on affordability last fall, and one of its subgroups is looking at the number of hours required for majors, Maynard said.
During his State of the State address, Gov. Mitch Daniels said he supports legislation empowering the
Indiana Commission for Higher Education to limit so-called credit creep, which he said “unduly increases both time to graduation and student expense.”
Some degrees will continue to justify more than the traditional 120 credit hours, Daniels said. “But schools requiring 126 hours for a degree in sociology, or 138 hours in special education, or 141 hours in music education, should have to explain why all that time and student expense is necessary, especially when other colleges offer high-quality programs in less time and cost,” Daniels stated in his written address.
Under
House Bill 1220, the state’s public higher education institutions would have to justify any associate degree more than 60 hours or baccalaureate program more than 120 hours. The bill is co-authored by Bob Behning, R-Indianapolis, influential chairman of the House Education Committee.
The bill passed out of committee Wednesday and now moves to the full House. It gives the commission the authority to terminate university degree programs that exceed the standard number of credit hours.
According to Maynard, ISU requires at least 124 credit hours to graduate, but a student graduating with a baccalaureate degree has an average of about 135 credits. That represents an additional semester of coursework, he said.
Maynard joined provosts from other Indiana public universities Wednesday and discussed the issue during a conference call. “Everyone is talking about what we have to do to deal with this,” he said. In some cases, the colleges have required too many credits for a major. But in some cases, accrediting agencies are requiring excessive credit hours for a major.
Also, when students decide to change their major too late in their college career, that can add credit hours and delay graduation, he said.
If the 120 credits became law, ISU would have to change some of its programs, but in some cases it would argue for exemptions because of requirements by outside accrediting groups, Maynard said.
Leaders at the public institutions may ask legislators to hold off and give the colleges until next summer to come up with their own solution on how to address credit creep, Maynard said.
As proposed, House Bill 1220 would take effect July 1.