Bob Zemsky on How 3-Year Degrees Could Save Colleges

The politicization of higher ed is a distraction from the purpose of institutions: experimentation. According to Robert Zemsky, a pioneer in market analysis of higher education and the founding director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Research on Higher Education, American colleges won’t exist unless they change their product.  

“This business about DEI and Trumpism and all of that—that’s warfare. It’s about sloganeering and punishing the enemies who want what you don’t want,” he said in a recent episode of The Key, Inside Higher Ed’s news and analysis podcast. “That’s not what higher ed is supposed to be about. It’s supposed to be about purposeful experimentation.”

Zemsky has been encouraging educators to experiment with developing three-year degrees for over 15 years. The model is a fix for what he calls “product rejection”—evidenced by the rates of first year students progressing to sophomore year. 

“We know that that number is embarrassingly low,” he said, citing his research that found more than 25 percent of students don’t progress after their first year at a quarter of institutions. “The real sign out there is [that] the people we want are rejecting our product.”

Shorter degrees are cheaper, improve retention and equip students with the skills they need for a career, he argued. 

He co-founded College-in-3 Exchange, a community where educators experimenting with the model can share tips and ideas. It held its first in-person meeting in 2024.

“You’ll like the fun of playing with new stuff where all the answers aren’t determined by people who were 50 years older than you,” he advised educators. “This is your game friends. Try it—you’ll like it.”

He celebrated the recent decision by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education to allow colleges to develop three-year degrees as a triumph of higher education leaders in the state refusing to back down. 

“The people in the Legislature did not want to do this and they’ve done it,” he said. “This idea has real glue behind it. People take hold of it and won’t let go.”

Listen to the full episode.