Dive Brief:
- The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education last week voted to eliminate 41 academic programs and suspend 21 more, after a monthslong review of almost 360 "low-producing" offerings at the 25 institutions under the board's purview.
- Colleges will develop a teach-out plan for any students enrolled in eliminated programs and cease operating them within one year. Suspended programs will be paused so colleges can reevaluate their "viability and continuation status," according to board documents.
- Almost 200 of the programs flagged for review will continue under action plans "to boost enrollment and productivity." Planned changes include updating curricula, implementing strategies to improve enrollment and collaborating with other institutions, the board said Friday.
Dive Insight:
In May, the Oklahoma state regents ordered a productivity review of every academic program in the state system. About 1 in 5 did not meet the annual productivity thresholds, which include a minimum number of degrees awarded and students enrolled, the board said.
Minimum annual productivity metrics for Oklahoma public colleges
The regents on Thursday voted to end or suspend 17% of the 357 flagged offerings.
Colleges saved some programs from potentially being axed by promising "substantive changes in an effort to increase productivity." The board also made exceptions for degrees that share costs with other programs or don't cost the institution any additional funds.
The board said it further preserved over 80 flagged programs that serve fields addressing high-need areas of Oklahoma’s workforce pipeline, including engineering, education, computer science and health professions.
“By phasing out programs that no longer meet student or workforce needs and shielding programs in STEM and other crucial fields, we are ensuring that public higher education remains future-focused and responsive," Sean Burrage, chief executive officer for the Oklahoma State System of Higher Education, said in a Friday statement.
Academic degrees cut at Oklahoma public colleges
The University of Oklahoma will see 14 programs end — eight bachelors and six graduate degrees — almost five times as many as at any of the 16 other affected institutions.
The university saved 23 degrees with the promise of increasing their productivity, either through new strategies or substantive changes. Another 23 University of Oklahoma degrees were spared because of their low- or no-cost designations, according to board documents.
The flagship will, however, see a number of world language programs end, including those in Chinese, Arabic, French and German. Other affected subjects include music, geography and plant biology.
From 2016 to 2021, U.S. colleges experienced a 16.6% drop in enrollment in foreign language classes, according to a 2023 report from the Modern Language Association. Many colleges seeking to shrink their costs and streamline their academic offerings have responded by restructuring their language degrees.
Miami University Ohio recently combined over half a dozen language programs into one "world languages and cultures" degree, according to WVXU.
Other institutions have done away with their programs entirely. In 2024, West Virginia University's board voted to dissolve the public flagship's languages department, over the objections of faculty and students.
And Columbia College Chicago last December enacted a round of program eliminations that included its bachelor's in American Sign Language — the only such degree in Illinois.
