Indiana University-Bloomington will end or consolidate more than 100 academic programs, following … More the requirements of a new law.
Indiana University-Bloomington is ending more than 100 of its academic degree programs. The massive restructuring comes after the state passed a budget bill introducing several new public higher education policies, including one involving minimum thresholds for degree productivity.
The programs on the list to be phased out include those at the undergraduate and graduate level and span multiple disciplines, such as education, the arts and humanities, foreign languages and some sciences.
One of the budget bill’s provisions — inserted by the Republican majority as the legislative session reached its final hours — established a minimum average number of graduates that degree programs at Indiana’s public colleges and universities must produce over a three-year period.
If that number falls below 10 students in an associate degree program, 15 students in a BA program, seven students in master’s degree program, and three students in a doctorate degree program, the institution would have to request permission from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to continue offering the program. The university would need to eliminate the program if the commission does not grant that permission.
The targeted programs at IU and other public institutions in the state appeared on a list released on June 30 by the Indiana Commission for Higher Education. In a press release, the Commission reported that “six of the state’s public higher education institutions voluntarily submitted more than 400 degree programs for elimination, suspension, or merger/consolidation.”
Those programs represented about 19% of all degree programs statewide. According to the Commission, “students currently enrolled in any eliminated or suspended degree program will have the opportunity to complete their studies through an orderly teach-out.”
The university and colleges eliminated 75 programs at both main and regional campuses, 68 of which had zero enrollments. Another 101 programs were suspended, and 232 programs will eventually be merged or consolidated.
The impacted programs included:
- Ball State University: 51
- Indiana State University: 11
- Indiana University (all campuses): 249, 116 of which were at the flagship campus at Bloomington.
- Ivy Tech Community College: 10
- Purdue University (all campuses): 83
- University of Southern Indiana: 4
“Indiana’s institutions have set a national example,” said Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education Chris Lowery in the news release. “The thoughtful, voluntary review and reduction conducted by Indiana’s public institutions demonstrates their commitment to improving quality, cost, and delivery while strategically allocating resources. Our institutions want to ensure the programs they’re offering are responsive to student demand and fit the needs of Indiana’s evolving economy.”
Among the dozens of undergraduate degree programs at IU Bloomington that are being eliminated or suspended with plans either to eliminate or merge them were Art History, American Studies, Atmospheric Science, Cognitive Science, Comparative Literature, Dance, Earth Science, French, Geography, East Asian Studies, Gender Studies, German Studies, Italian, Music/Ballet, Religious Studies, Spanish, and Statistics.
More than 15 teacher education programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels are being eliminated.
Several master’s and doctoral programs will also be discontinued. Notable examples included MA programs in African Studies, Comparative Literature, Communications and Culture, Journalism, Latin American Studies, Statistics, Theatre and Drama and several foreign languages.
Included among the Ph.D. programs slated for eventual phaseouts were African American and African Diaspora Studies, American Studies, Art History, Astrophysics, Chemical Physics, Classical Studies, Comparative Literature, Astrophysics, French, Japanese, Gender Studies, Italian, Public Policy, and Theatre and Drama.
Indiana Governor Mike Braun praised the action, noting that “during the most recent legislative session, one of our top agenda items included ensuring that Indiana’s higher education institutions are preparing students for career opportunities in the most in-demand fields of today and the future.”
“Just in the past month, our state institutions have taken bold, proactive steps to increase the value of higher education for both students and families, first, through keeping tuition flat, and today, by beginning the process to streamline degree offerings,” Braun added.
