Accelerated Business Degree Reduces Student Debt

As more students and parents consider the value of higher education and the cost of a four-year degree, interest has grown in three-year degree opportunities that allow students to complete their education in less time for a lower tuition rate.

Westminster College in Pennsylvania launched a new Degree in Three program in the School of Business this year, allowing learners to graduate with 125 credits and shave a year off their time in undergraduate education. Additionally, the program pairs with the college’s master of business administration, so learners can complete two degrees in four years if they so choose.

The background: There were a few catalysts for creating a formal three-year degree program, explains Robert Badowski, Westminster’s school of business chair. First, more students were coming in with credits from high school from AP or dual-enrollment programs, making their degree progress quicker. Second, more students and parents had noted the high cost of education and concerns about student debt.

A May 2024 Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed and Generation Lab found seven in 10 respondents say higher education institutions in general charge too much for an undergraduate education.

Westminster isn’t the only college facing pressure to get students to graduation sooner: Interest in formalized three-year degree programs has grown in recent years, and more institutions are looking to get in the game, even medical schools.

At Westminster, the college had helped students shape their own schedules to graduate in three years rather than four, but a curriculum review and restructuring of elective courses has helped make this accessible to all students.

What’s different: Westminster students can take up to 19 credit hours per semester and be considered full-time, but the business program offered primarily four-credit courses, making it difficult for students to max out their credit load.

“You could take four classes, but if you took the fifth class, you were paying extra money, and most students don’t want to take on that burden, even if it was cutting off a year,” Badowski explains.

Many three-year degree programs reduce the total number of credits students have to complete, but Westminster accelerated business students still complete at least 125 credits. To do so, faculty members reimagined their four-credit elective courses to be worth either one or two credits instead.

Now, instead of engaging in a deep dive into an elective topic, students receive greater breadth in a variety of areas and are able to hit that 19-credit threshold exactly.

“We had a meeting [with faculty members] as far as which courses made sense to do this with, and we found out in the process that a lot of [content] was stretched out purposefully just to be stretched out,” Badowski says. The process of removing content or packing it into seven or eight weeks, therefore, made more sense in many cases.

The restructuring of elective courses is something that will benefit all business students, not just those participating in the accelerated degree program, giving them greater flexibility in scheduling.

BOGO deal: In addition to removing costs associated with attending college, the Degree in Three program allows students to pair their undergraduate and graduate degrees in a four-year timeline.

“We have a pretty neat deal that if students want to take one of their M.B.A. classes the last semester of their senior year, they can,” Badowski says. “We don’t charge for the M.B.A. course, so that gets them kind of jettisoned into the program.”

The offering is particularly attractive to student athletes at the college, many of whom want to use all four years of eligibility.

The price of an M.B.A. at Westminster is also around $10,000, so students spend less for a three-plus-one M.B.A. degree than four years in their undergraduate program, Badowski says.

What’s next: Administrators are working on creating awareness of the offering among prospective students and particularly parents, who “are going to look at this and hopefully go, ‘I can help my kids save a year of tuition, maybe get them out of college a year faster,’” Badowski says.

The college doesn’t have specific goals for enrollment, but Badowski would like to see 20 in the first year and consistent growth after that. “I’m hoping that people find it useful for them, [because] they’re still getting the same amount of credits. They’re taking the same classes as everybody else, it’s just faster.”

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