A closer look at how students at BYU-Idaho, BYU-Pathway and Ensign College are able to earn a degree in three years
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REXBURG — Online students will have a new opportunity coming up next year: getting a three-year college degree.
Brigham Young University-Idaho and Ensign College, with the support of BYU-Pathway Worldwide, will offer 90-96 credit degrees beginning in April that will allow students to complete an online bachelor’s degree in just three years, rather than the typical four years.
The universities are part of the Church Educational System (CES) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“It’s a shorter time, but it’s not a lesser degree. It’s just as strong and rigorous as any of our bachelor’s degrees that we offer on campus,” said Van Christman, Associate Academic Vice President for Curriculum at BYU-Idaho.
“It’s an equivalent bachelor’s degree. It’s really just looking more closely at the learning outcomes,” added Boyd Baggett, BYU-Idaho’s Director of Institutional Effectiveness and Accreditation.
RELATED | BYU-Idaho, Ensign College to begin offering three-year degrees through BYU-Pathway
What degrees are available?
The available degrees include the following, according to BYU-Pathway Worldwide online:
- Applied business management
- Applied health
- Communication
- Family and human services
- Information technology
- Professional studies
- Software development
Affordable education
Christman says the new degrees will cut costs and help students.
“Before, they had to pay for 120 credit hours and now they only have to pay for 90 credit hours. It cuts costs by 25% just in tuition costs. It makes that degree much more accessible to a larger group of people who couldn’t afford it either because of the time or the cost associated with it,” he said.
Not only can students save money, but they can finish their degrees one year ahead of schedule and start or upgrade their careers sooner.
“I think it’s a benefit in a lot of ways to the school because it makes us really focus on student learning. It really focuses our attention and I think it increases the quality of what we offer because we are not distracted by other things. We are focused on what are the critical learning outcomes that a student needs as they move forward,” Christman said.
The new degrees, which were approved by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), will preserve all required major and general education courses while eliminating elective credits.
BYU–Idaho and Ensign College will report regularly to NWCCU on the outcomes and progress of students enrolled in the new degrees.
“The traditional model of higher education focused too much on what’s good for the institution and how do we finance the institution rather than what does the student need to get that job, to get that education that they came here for, to get those learning outcomes,” Baggett said.
Who can enroll?
According to BYU-Pathway Worldwide online, all new students enrolling in the “preferred path” Fall Semester 2023, which is September through December or after, will be in a three-year bachelor’s degree when they continue their program with BYU-Idaho or Ensign College. The “preferred path” to a degree begins with Pathway Connect and is recommended for most students. Click here to learn more.
For students enrolling in the “advanced path,” the three-year degree option will be available in Spring Semester 2024, April through July. The “advanced path” to a degree requires a more detailed application process and is primarily for U.S. students with significant previous university and online learning experience.
“Because these are offered through our partner, BYU-Pathway, most students would enter through a set of pre-matriculation courses called Pathway Connect. That program takes 1 ½ semesters so students entering that now will be moving into the new programs,” Christman explained.
Click here to view some frequently asked questions.
What if you want to transfer to another school?
Students who don’t finish the online three-year degree and want to go to a different school can transfer.
“When a student transfers to another school, it is on a course-by-course basis. The receiving institution looks at courses taken at a prior institution and decides course by course whether to accept those courses as transfer credit. This new degree structure shouldn’t change anything in that regard for a student changing schools before a degree is finished,” Baggett said.
Students will get transcripts so if they choose to transfer to another school, the transcripts would move and they would continue.
More about the degree
Serving nearly 70,000 students in more than 180 countries annually, BYU–Pathway Worldwide provides resources and support to students as they complete online degrees and certificates delivered by BYU–Idaho and Ensign College, a news release from BYU-Idaho said.
The average online student is 33 years old, takes two classes at a time, works full time and supports a family.
“It’s powerful. It really helps. We think it’s going to make education much more attainable for a lot of students who otherwise, it’s too far down the road,” Christman said.
Christman says he wants students to get an education and be leaders in their homes, church and their communities.
“We hope that this will do that. We also hope that more students will take advantage of an education because it’s more accessible to them,” he said.
Christman said the idea of the three-year degree has been in the works for a while.
“It’s actually been an idea around higher education for 14 years. We looked at it back in 2010 a little bit. At that point in time, there wasn’t a support structure to pursue it,” Christman said. “Boyd started visiting with our accrediting agency to see if they would be open to the idea. It just took time to develop that and to get a structure down that would work. …And when we say ‘a structure,’ we want to be really careful that we didn’t lose any of the learning outcomes that we have for a regular bachelor’s degree. We want to meet all of the outcomes and even more outcomes than a regular bachelor’s degree. Student learning is critical to this, and we wanted to make sure that that was the case.”
Although BYU–Idaho and Ensign College are among the first institutions to receive accreditation for this degree structure, other innovators in higher education have for years explored degree options that are based more on learning outcomes than the actual time in the classroom, a news release said.
BYU–Idaho has participated in the “College-in-3” consortium of schools that includes the University of Minnesota Rochester and the University of Pennsylvania to explore a variety of ways to rethink traditional approaches to higher education.
Christman and Baggett are looking forward to the new change of a three-year degree for online students.
“We want to bless these students, and we want to help them,” Christman said. “I am excited that we have got to the point that we really are serious about looking at student learning, rather than just counting credits. That to me, is huge.”
Click here to learn more about the optimized degree offerings.
