In an experiment begun in 2005, Disney determined that customers would pay more—a lot more—to get a little more time at their parks. Guests paid a premium to stay at a Disney hotel to gain an extra hour of park access. Disney’s “Magic Hours” demonstrated that when customers find something valuable, they may even challenge diminishing marginal utility to get more of it.

Like a theme park, colleges and universities have been aggressive in their pricing. Tuition increases outpace inflation, but the “value proposition” of the bachelor’s degree remains essentially unchanged. Some university administrators are now calling for 90-hour bachelor degrees. In an era of declining revenue and enrollment, this is not reform. Rather, these administrators are firefighters who turn out to be an arsonists.

Doubling Down on Failure

Higher ed is failing. It is unclear what students are learning, particularly when tracked from entry to exit. The number of hours spent studying has likely plateaued. Poor mental health among undergrads is a national scandal. Increasingly ideological faculty research, including “grievance studies,” makes a mockery of real scholarship and shifts the burden of teaching to exhausted adjuncts. Few schools offer anything that looks like a core curriculum. Accreditation and other regulatory oversight, including initiatives to assess “program quality” or “mapping objectives,” enlist more administrators than ever before but provide no substantial oversight. ITT Tech and DeVry were accredited too, after all.

Reducing the number of credit hours trades away higher ed’s last comparative advantage, in-person classrooms, to double down on the impersonalized credentialist rot that accelerated during COVID. Imagine if Disney discounts its ticket price by some amount but begins to offer “virtual park hours” or “theme park equivalencies” in lieu of extended park hours. Watch the webcams at Epcot! Create your own Space Mountain at home! Disney Park Representatives will “certify” your experience! No one would buy it.

Moving accreditors off the 120-hour degree just shifts attention from Carnegie credit hour measurements to “objectives” and “assessment,” two wooden nickels already minted in abundance for accreditation. Schools currently struggling with enrollment, finances, or underemployment of graduates have already checked all their accreditation boxes by mapping objectives, assessments, and outcomes. What they’ve not done is revisit what’s happening in their classrooms. Rather than do that heavy lifting, they’ll propose to make up for the shortfall in classroom hours by testing skills.

“Competency-based learning” and “alternative assessment” trade testing centers for relationships. Measurement replaces mentorship. Selling education as “skills” that can be “tested” avoids the hard work of forming students as persons. “Experiential learning” and “student development pieces” (i.e., glorified projects) eliminate faculty or turn them into graders for skills tests.

Racing to the Bottom

Those hoping to fight the high cost of education with a 90-hour degree are like Russian generals sending a convoy of armored vehicles into the teeth of cheap drones and anti-tank weapons. The battlefield has changed since the last failed attempt at an accredited 90-hour degree. High school students now pursue “dual enrollment” or begin their undergrad careers at inexpensive community colleges that have articulation agreements with universities. Advanced Placement courses, International Baccalaureate programs, and College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) tests are still used to earn college credit. If there was no reason to approve the first request for a 90-hour degree, there is even less reason to do so now. Although American students do go abroad for abbreviated undergrad degrees, countries like Canada are offering more four-year degree programs. If residential costs are the problem, there are more credentials than ever that can be earned in one’s pajamas.

If colleges hope to become expensive job training centers, hands-on skills are better imparted in the context in which they are used. Also, inexpensive crash courses and self-study already prove effective for certifications and licenses. Neither a Series 7 exam nor a real estate license, for example, require campuses or dedicated faculty, a cafeteria, a lazy river in the rec center, or any Carnegie credit hour minimums. Work is excellent preparation for work; classrooms are intended for thinking and discussing. The confusion between the two has turned much of higher education into a category error.

Robert Zemsky can propose this race to the bottom from the gilded halls of UPenn because they’ll never do it there. Nor will there ever be a 90-hour degree at Tulane, George Washington University, or any other school thought to be premium goods. Even the military academies, institutions largely devoted to “skills,” will not offer 90-hour degrees. Schools like Hillsdale seek to transform their students through residency. Elite institutions will continue to command a premium while the rest begin a rusty knife fight to sell credentials and credits on the cheap.

If reformers want to do something truly revolutionary, they can begin by restoring what education does best. Replace “pertinent” with permanent. Impart wisdom through faculty who love their subject as much as they love their students. When Disney starts cutting park hours by 25%, universities can talk about cutting their credit hours by 25%. What real colleges and universities have to offer is far more significant than any theme park. If we cannot figure out how to use our classrooms and relationships properly, then a better number would be 100%. Cut the required credit hours entirely and build theme parks on closed campuses. Dorm guests get an extra ride down the lazy river in the old rec building.

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