“The ranks of colleges offering three-year bachelor’s degrees with fewer credits have been growing in recent years,” Higher Ed Dive reported in late June.

The latest momentum is coming from Virginia and Ohio, which have joined forces to develop a model for 90-credit bachelor’s degrees. Under the proposal, participating institutions would design two three-year degree programs by spring 2028, replacing the traditional 120-credit model that has long defined American higher education. According to Higher Ed Dive, the initiative—known as “Scaling College in 3″—will bring together public and private colleges, higher education officials from both states, and several nonprofit organizations led by Jobs for the Future. If successful, the proposal will need legislative action.

It has been some time since I last said anything about three-year bachelor’s degrees. In fact, it was almost exactly a year ago that I published “Cut the Bloat, Graduate Faster,” arguing that colleges should rethink bloated degree requirements, eliminate unnecessary coursework, and help students complete their degrees more quickly, provided they did so without sacrificing academic quality.

One irony that Higher Ed Dive did not note is that most students today don’t graduate in four years. Many are taking five or six years to finish. So, I wonder whether the three-year bachelor’s degree will simply become the new four-year degree.

Anyway, Virginia and Ohio’s proposal provides a timely opportunity to revisit the conversation about three-year degrees. Supporters generally argue that three-year degrees can reduce costs and speed entry into the workforce. Critics counter that reducing credit requirements diminishes the value of the bachelor’s degree and weakens academic standards.

Rather than offer a single perspective, I asked three contributors to write about the proposal. As you’ll see, each arrived at a very different conclusion.

David Randall welcomes the proposal, albeit as a vehicle for broader reform. He contends that it exposes how colleges and universities have transformed the bachelor’s degree into little more than a workforce credential, far removed from higher education’s original purpose.

Richard Vedder argues that three-year bachelor’s degrees are a worthwhile goal, but only if universities compress the academic calendar rather than dilute academic expectations.

Suzannah Alexander argues that three-year degrees rightly shift the burden onto colleges to prove that a fourth year of tuition, time, and debt delivers sufficient value to students.

My colleagues’ essays are not intended to be comprehensive treatments of three-year bachelor’s degrees. But each offers a different framework for thinking about a proposal that is likely to receive increasing attention as states search for ways to reduce college costs.

Whether you agree with one contributor, all three, or none, I encourage you to join the discussion in the comments.

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