Is a 90 credit hour bachelor's degree legit?
Be sure to read update at the bottom of this post!
Original Post:
The University of Lynchburg, where I teach, is planning to drop the credit requirements for bachelors degrees from 120 to 90.
One of the rationales is that college is too expensive, and this will allow students to get a bachelors degree in less time, and for less money, which will help with retention and degree completion. They're also saying that it offers "a faster path to a masters degree," and plan to create a bunch of new masters degree programs to complement the shorter degrees.
They're calling this a 3+1 plan, and believe that it will attract high achievers, with slogans like, "trade electives for a masters degree," because students will be able to earn both a bachelors and a masters degree in the same time frame that most schools require for just a bachelors.
I'm curious what others think of this plan? Is a 90 credit bachelors degree legit? Do you think that this sort of program will attract high achievers? Or will it attract anyone at all?
Update: (12/30/2025)
Well, the school's initial notion of whip cracking every existing bachelors degree program into a 3+1 bachelors and masters in four years programs didn't even pass the laugh test with the internal feasibility group, let alone SACSCOC (even the college-in-3 advocates say to try just a few pilot programs). So, the school submitted a handful of pilot program proposals to SACSCOC which were shot down in short order. It's my understanding that a major sticking point was trying to call them "BS" or "BA" degrees (i.e. "you get the 'same thing' here cheaper and quicker," which was the original goal). Ultimately, though, SACSCOC has approved two pilot programs that do not use the names BA or BS, but rather "applied."
See school's brochure page here: https://www.lynchburg.edu/university-of-lynchburg-to-offer-applied-degrees-in-public-health-educational-studies/
Meanwhile, the school's accreditation remains on warning, even after 12 months, because SACSCOC is more interested in the actual numbers at the end of the fiscal year than a polished up budget which may or may not look like the near future. In short, my understanding is that the school has cleared neither the financial concerns nor the administrative concerns noted by SACSCOC in the warning letter.