Bachelor’s degrees adding number of credit hours required

Written by Suzi Starheim Thursday, 11 March 2010 23:07

User Rating: / 4
PoorBest 

Students hoping to complete their bachelor ’s degree in four years may have to start taking a closer look at their major’s degree requirements prior to enrollment.

A typical bachelor’s degree should require 121 credit hours over the course of four years, yet several of Kent State’s programs have far exceeded this standard, said Robert Frank, provost and senior vice president of academic affairs.

“We’ve had sort of degree creep over the years where people add more and more and more into degrees, and employers sort of give us mixed messages,” Frank said. “They want our graduates to have more, but on the other hand they want graduates to come out with more work-ready skills, so you get caught up in how to best prepare people.”

This means that many students cannot graduate in the allotted four years, typically having to complete the left-over credit hours during a fifth year.

“Students may not really realize what going 20 or 40 hours more means in their lives,” Frank said. “They may not realize until junior or senior years.”

Therese Tillett, director of curriculum services, said, “Ideally, a fulltime enrolled student should get by by taking 15 credits per semester plus an orientation course.”

Mohammed Alsawaha, freshman English as a second language major, said while he is changing his major to business administration in Fall 2010, he plans to take 15 credit hours per semester.

Alsawaha said if it comes down to having many credit hours during his last two years, he will do whatever it takes to graduate in four years.

Alsawaha said he would rather “load up on credits in his fourth year than take a fifth year of classes.”

Reasons

Tillett said the education and nursing departments tend to have degrees with high credit hour requirements.

“Licensure or state requirements change every few years, and I think there is a history of changing the program to add courses without checking to see what can be removed,” Tillett said. “The College of Nursing is very good at looking at their own program and incorporating content into already existing courses.”

Tillett said another possible reason for the high credit requirements in these departments is “because of their accreditation and state requirements for teacher licensure and with some of these majors, sometimes the student will specialize in two areas and they will have to take content in both areas.” Tillett added that fortunately for education students, some of these high credit hour requirements can be counted toward their master’s degree when they come to complete it.

When Katelyn Regan, sophomore integrated language arts major, changed to her major from business her freshman year, she wasn’t fully aware of how much she would have to do each semester to graduate in four years.

“I was led to believe I could get out in four years,” Regan said. “That would be if I did my student teaching in Spring 2012.”

Regan said she hopes to ideally graduate in four years and wants to begin teaching immediately upon graduation.

Cynthia Symons, professor in health education and promotion, said while the credit hour requirements look daunting on paper, there is a very good explanation for this that many students don’t realize.

For example, students working to earn a degree in school health and physical education can have to take up to 167 credit hours to graduate — taking them well into a fifth year of classes. This is because a program like this is technically a dual major: one in school health and one in physical education.

However, by taking a fifth year, students will graduate with two full majors and two full licensures in Ohio, Symons said.

“That accounts for the additional credit hours,” Symons said. “The licenses are split and you can get one or the other, or you can load up and get both.”

Symons said the fifth year of additional credits is very beneficial to students in the education field. “In terms of increasing their marketability, anytime a teacher can have licenses or credentials in more than one area, the more marketable they are,” she said.

If students choose to get both licensures, some of those hours can be taken over the summer, said Ralph Lorenz, interim associate dean of the College of the Arts.

“Of course you can take extra courses during the summer, but it’s not generally assumed that students have to take courses during summer,” Lorenz said.

If a program is 132 hours or more, the department has to decide whether to cut back hours or advertise as more than a four-year program, Frank added.

“Degrees are constantly pressured to justify why they aren’t at the typical 120 national average,” Frank said. “Both at a national and international level, there is a push for a bachelor’s degree to be as efficient as possible.”

Lorenz said overall, colleges have to realize that it’s all about “finding the right balance.”

“There is always something to be said for the additional knowledge you take up,” Lorenz added.

“There is always a trade-off between efficiency and picking up a highly developed set of skills.”

Contact academics reporter Suzi Starheim at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .