North Dakota Approves Some Three-Year Degrees

The North Dakota State Board of Higher Education will allow colleges to develop reduced-credit degree programs—although only for certain majors, the North Dakota Monitor reported.

Only bachelor of applied science degrees, which are generally career and technical programs, such as exercise science or finance, are permitted to be less than 120 credits under the board’s new policy. Each public university will be allowed to pilot up to two reduced-credit majors, and the pilots will run from fall 2026 to 2030.

The new policy comes as three-year degrees are becoming increasingly common, with a slew of in-person reduced-credit programs launching in fall 2025. Other states, such as Utah, have also taken steps to allow their public colleges to experiment with reduced-credit programs in an effort to allow students to spend less time and money on their college education.