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Home / Iowa Ideas
‘Program termination is both a natural process of curricular evolution, and a necessary step’
Sep. 6, 2022 5:30 am
Just six University of Northern Iowa students pursued a bachelor’s degree in Global Studies in the 2021-22 academic year, and — with budgets tight and getting tighter — that’s not enough.
“The major has failed to find and sustain a student audience in recent years,” according to UNI’s proposal in April to terminate its 33-hour Global Studies major, which focuses on globalization and other cultures.
“Global Studies now has an outdated curriculum that cannot be delivered as described in the catalog,” according to UNI’s program-termination request, approved by Board of Regents. “It is no longer an efficient use of resources to sustain Global Studies as an independent major.”
Meanwhile, the University of Iowa at the same April meeting, asked regents to OK creation of a new, official online-only version of its Master of Science in Business Analytics program.
“For us, it was kind of a no-brainer,” Ann Campbell, department executive officer of the UI Tippie College of Business’ Department of Business Analytics, told The Gazette.
Her department for five years offered an in-person version of the master’s program at UI sites in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Davenport until the pandemic in 2020 forced them online.
When restrictions eased and courses bounced back to their original form, Tippie continued offering a virtual option for its business analytics master’s program, which generally attracts so-called non-traditional students such as working professionals.
And even with COVID-19 restrictions lifted and in-person offerings available, few students signed up to attend in class while a waiting list formed for the flexible online version.
“People have by far been choosing the online option,” Campbell said about the reasoning behind her department’s request to make the online master’s program permanent. “Something like 80 to 90 percent of our students right now are choosing the online version of our classes.”
Pruning away dried-up programs, degrees and academic centers while reframing, reformatting or fashioning new majors and curricular opportunities to meet student and employer demands is becoming increasingly imperative for institutions vying to attract and retain students from a shrinking pool of applicants.
“UNI is dedicated to serving the needs of Iowans. To achieve this goal we regularly evaluate our programs to assure they are aligned with the professional goals of our students and the skills required of employers,” according to UNI spokesman Andrew Morse. “Programs are continually monitored on a variety of levels to ensure they are viable, relevant and contemporary.”
The Iowa Ideas Conference is coming up Oct. 13-14, 2022. The virtual conference will be free to attend, but registration is required. To see a complete conference schedule, click here.
This article is from Iowa Ideas magazine, published by The Gazette.
All three of Iowa’s regent universities have systems in place to evaluate programmatic relevance and efficiency. At UNI, for example, Morse said departments annually receive data on key performance indicators such as enrollment, graduation rates, class sizes, withdrawal rates and other metrics.
“One of the key metrics for any review is proper alignment of curriculum and learning outcomes with employment needs,” Morse said.
Programs determined to no longer meet student and employer needs can undergo “significant remodeling” or termination.
“Program termination is both a natural process of curricular evolution and a necessary step to free up resources for more innovative offerings,” Morse said.
Launching a new program involves a “rigorous process” designed to ensure alignment with student interest and employer needs via supporting data and enrollment projections.
“We continually monitor and subscribe to a host of statewide employment demand data, make extensive use of professional advisory committees, work with external consultants and monitor higher education and student interest trends to help determine emerging areas of opportunity,” Morse said.
“New program proposals then go through a multistep review process with approvals required from department heads, deans, college senates, a university level committee and, ultimately, the Board of Regents.”
Between Jan. 1, 2021, and May 2022, Iowa’s public universities have gone to the Board of Regents seeking approval to add or amend 44 programs or academic centers, including 19 in the first half of 2022.
In 2020, the campuses sought to change or add 10 programs or centers. In 2019, pre-pandemic, that number was 23.
Numbers of dropped programs also have bumped up of late — with 12 since the start of 2021, up from five in 2020 and eight in 2019, according to regent documents.
The uptick — along with the slant of many of the programs — reflects the speed at which social and economic shifts have altered the state and nation since the pandemic and because of it.
In June, Iowa State received regent approval to launch a new bachelor of science in health care management. The UI this year sought approval to launch three new bachelor degrees — all health-related — and two new centers, including a new Iowa Center for School Mental Health.
“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the mental health and social-emotional learning needs among students and educators in Iowa were on the rise,” according to the UI request for a new mental health center. “The pandemic has only heightened the need to support the social, emotional, behavioral and psychological well-being of children, families and educators.”
Other new offerings reflecting technological advances include the UI and UNI business analytics programs; a new UI master’s in data science; and new Iowa State University centers for Translational A.I. Research and Education as well as for Wireless, Communities and Innovation.
“Data of various types, complexity and sizes are increasingly collected and used across fields, widening the integration of data-directed applications in society, science and business,” according to the UI proposal for a master’s in data science. “Companies and organizations of every size and industry — from Google, Amazon, medical research centers, pharmaceutical companies, government agencies to retail stores — are looking for experts to help them deal with data.”
In pitching new programs and centers, the asking institutions must outline the need, explain how it will function, articulate its alignment with the campus mission and explain how it will relate to other programs on its own campus and at colleges and universities statewide.
The proposals also must spell out student and workforce demand and from where funding will come. The new UI mental health center, for example, is relying on research grants from the Department of Education — starting with $2.5 million in year one and then $5 million annually for four subsequent years.
After that, the goal is to secure donations.
“There is significant philanthropic interest in endowing this center,” according to the UI request.
Regardless of any recent uptick compelled by significant national and international changes, the regent universities for decades have been plucking out poor-performing programs and plugging in prospects aimed at keeping their campuses relevant and attractive, according to Ann Marie VanDerZanden, association provost for academic programs at Iowa State.
“As an institution, we very much consider that as part of our overall academic health, our academic quality,” VanDerZanden said, pointing to Iowa State’s College of Business.
“They’ve continued to grow and evolve their programs … because they’re responding to the external input they’re getting from their advisory board, from their college and department, and then also the requests that are coming in from students.”
Even from students who are only visiting campus in their search for a collegiate home or those just arriving for orientation, Iowa State has a communications network set up to capitalize on their comments and requests for academic programming, VanDerZanden said.
“Our folks on the admissions side are able to share that with the colleges so they can have that information in real time,” she said.
Looking ahead at what new degree programs might be on the horizon, VanDerZanden said business-related initiatives increasingly have been popular, as have those in STEM fields — falling under the science, technology, engineering and mathematics umbrella.
“If I’ve seen any trend in my 20-plus years here at the institution, it’s been for those interdisciplinary types of degree programs,” she said, suggesting students are seeking degrees that train them in multiple fields — such as health care and business, or data analytics and communications.
Those types of interdisciplinary degree changes are happening at the course and curricular level, too — below the degree-creation stage requiring board approval.
Faculty, VanDerZanden said, are suggesting, “Let’s make some changes to the courses that are required and bring in a data analytics course or a cybersecurity course to tie in with an agricultural production degree so students are understanding the complications of data and cyber as it relates to crop production.”
UNI, which in May announced a new “degree in three” program partnering with Waterloo Schools and Hawkeye Community College, has been leaning more into technical training types of degrees — launching for fall 2022 a Bachelor of Science in Automation Engineering Technology.
“UNI primarily serves Iowans, and we are strongly dedicated to ensuring graduates are well-positioned for successful careers in the state,” UNI’s Morse said. “Therefore, we most closely monitor employment trends specifically in Iowa.”
Although technological advancements have propelled demand for new degree programs of late, UI College of Business Senior Associate Dean Barrett Thomas said the pace of degree additions could slow — precisely because employer demand and workforce needs are advancing so swiftly.
“Increasingly all are pointing not to new degree programs, but rather to more modularized coursework that can be completed in a shorter time frame and allow students to gain new skills as they need them in the workplace,” Thomas said. “Thus, we have been developing certificate programs, sequences of four or five courses, that can be taken on their own or as part of the Iowa MBA.”
In the near future, he said, UI’s business college is eyeing even shorter course options, referred to as micro-credentials, giving students the opportunity to learn new skills in only a few classes.
Those micro-credentials will be “stackable.”
“By stackable, I mean that modules will stack into courses that will stack into certificates that can then be used to complete the Iowa MBA,” he said. “This way, students have the ability to use the courses to meet their short- and long-term goals.”
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
The Iowa Ideas Conference is coming up Oct. 13-14, 2022. The virtual conference will be free to attend, but registration is required. To see a complete conference schedule, click here.
Higher education reporter, The Gazette
John Steppe
The Gazette
John Steppe
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