Educators push back as Massachusetts plans 3-year degrees

three-year bachelor’s – Merrimack College and Suffolk University have won Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approval to pilot 3-year bachelor’s degrees starting in fall 2027. Educators and unions argue the shorter path will deepen inequities by limiting electives and general ed

Banners went up at Suffolk University as Massachusetts higher education leaders moved toward a new kind of bachelor’s degree—one that could be completed in three years instead of four.

Merrimack College and Suffolk University are set to launch three-year pilot applied bachelor’s degree programs in fall 2027 after the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approved the plan last week. The proposal immediately sparked a backlash from educators who say the idea is aimed at students who can least afford to lose breadth in their education.

The plan would give some students an accelerated route to a degree. Supporters frame it as a practical response to students who are trying to earn their credentials while working to support themselves and their families.

“Many students need to launch their careers sooner to support themselves and their families, and these pilots explore how we can grow options for being career-ready in a way that reduces costs and time to degree,” Commissioner of Higher Education Noe Ortega said in a statement.

Under the pilot plans, the standard number of credits for a bachelor’s degree is 120. Merrimack would pilot a 96-credit bachelor’s degree in business administration, communications, criminal justice, and psychology. Suffolk would pilot a 94-credit applied bachelor’s degree in healthcare administration and innovation.

Supporters say the accelerated programs are part of a broader push toward affordable college options in Massachusetts. That includes free community college. free and more affordable public four-year degrees. and expanded Early College programs that allow students to earn college credits at no cost in high school.

But educators worry the math is harder than it sounds.

Before the Board of Higher Education vote, the Massachusetts Teachers Association warned that the shortened degrees could appeal most to financially vulnerable students—students who may feel pressure to take the faster route. The association said that shift could create deeper inequities.

“It’s distressing to me that this proposal is in some sense aimed at low-income or working-class students,” said Heike Schotten, a faculty member at UMass Boston, in a statement.

Schotten said her students are already disadvantaged by having to work full-time while taking classes. She argued that offering them less education is not a genuine improvement.

“To offer them less of an education, as if it were an accommodation of that disadvantage rather than a kind of enhancement of it, is at best dishonest and at worst cruel,” she said.

The Massachusetts Teachers’ Association also said its faculty and staff raised concerns that the shortened programs could create what it called a “two-tiered higher education” system. The union warned that cutting credits would “erode the state’s reputation for academic excellence.”

The association argued that 30 fewer credits may not sound like a big change, but that reduction can translate into fewer electives and fewer general education courses—elements it says help students become well-rounded.

The Massachusetts Teachers’ Association did not respond to a request for further comment following the vote.

Kevin Young, an associate professor of history at UMass Amherst, said the program would “degrade the quality of higher education in our state.”

“The solution to financial difficulty is not to lower our standards or further reduce the place of liberal arts in our curricula,” Young continued. “The solution is stronger public funding, administered democratically at the campus level.”

For students and families watching from the sidelines, the question is straightforward: can an accelerated degree reduce barriers without shrinking what the degree is supposed to deliver?

With the pilots approved and timelines already set for fall 2027, that debate is now headed into the institutions that will decide how the three-year path is built—and what it will mean for students trying to keep moving while pursuing an education.

Merrimack College Suffolk University three-year bachelor’s degree pilot Massachusetts Board of Higher Education Noe Ortega 96-credit program 94-credit program Massachusetts Teachers Association higher education affordability early college programs