I realize that this is a long shot, but I figured that it never hurts to ask, and there is certainly no shortage of smart people here, so what the heck? Basically, I am currently enrolled in a master’s program in a large public college. Due to budget cuts, my major is being proposed for elimination. The program is very successful. Of about 50 such programs in the country, it ranks midway or higher, depending on the year. It pretty much pays for itself. As far as I know, there hasn’t ever been a deficit. Enrollment is expected to at least double due to the addition of a web based degree option, and a new scholarship program. And most importantly, compared to other graduate programs at the college, it has always ranked very high in the number of people graduating. By all accounts, a very successful program. However, times are hard everywhere. Universities feel the pain as well. There is really no logical reason to cut the program, but logic certainly hasn’t stopped them from putting this program up for elimination. The department is fighting to survive, and in my eyes, they are making an excellent effort. Unfortunately, here are some of the solutions floating around from the university: (none of them particularly good…)
The university will phase out the program, allowing 2-3 years for enrolled students to complete the program.
The university will eliminate the program altogether, leaving about 160-200 with no options.
The university has been in talks with another state university (about 4 states away) to have them offer their degree program to us via conference classes and/or online classes. I have looked over their curriculum, and most of their classes simply have no counterpart with our degree program. I would have to pay that state’s in state tuition (which is significantly higher than my current college). I’m not even sure that my classes would transfer. And most importantly, I’d be getting a degree from another state university I’ve never been to and never even seen.
College is always touted as a way to improve one’s life and well-being. Never did I think “Oh, I’m going to enroll in college to make a better life for myself. And in about a year, I think I’ll just watch as they eliminate that same program they promised me a year ago…” No, not really. Life is difficult, and college is supposed to offer opportunities.
If anybody knows anything that could help (a court case, law, or other information) or anything I may have overlooked, please share. I’ve invested a few thousand and countless hours (I’m almost exactly halfway finished) and while I feel that this is certainly unfair no matter how it turns out, emotions are no match for the cold hearted nature of University number crunchers.
I’m in an M.A. in music, and we had a few related, cross-disciplinary programs that ran concurrently (cultural mediations, arts and culture, etc.) at our university. They got scrapped, but the enrolled students were shuffling around as long as 3-4 years after it was ceased to be offered, and their degrees were given as per normal. If the same faculty’s there it’s not an issue. You’re paying tuition, after all.
Is your whole department closing shop, or just the M.A. program? I have never heard of a grad program, at least in the arts, that would leave a grad student hanging high and dry unless the whole department suffered a coronary.
Major: Library and Information Science. Which is offered as a degree option roughly one program per state, so it realllllyyyyy would place an undue hardship on any of us if we had to transfer.
I didn’t know about the other thread, so I checked it out. Lots of useful information.
Though, my program is a Master’s program it really seems like my school’s Chancellor favors the option of “borrowing” another school’s degree program. I don’t consider a degree from a state across the country an acceptable alternative for the degree I signed up for. The Chancellor still has to get about seven people to agree with him, then another group has to okay it all, so there’s still some hope…
There are three bodies you should contact for assistance here: the board of education in your state, the board of *higher *education in your state and the accreditation board, should your school have accreditation. (You can easily tell if your school has accreditation by looking at your report card or school catalog: is the school offering “hours” or “credits” for each class? If it’s “credits”, they’re accredited.)
All schools are approved by the board of education. All post-secondary schools are approved by the board of higher education. There are different requirements they must abide by for each of these approvals. Most large universities and colleges seek accreditation from independent, multi-state accreditation agencies like NCA, and there are rules they have to abide by to keep that accreditation.
When I was running a vocational college, we were told by the representative from the board of higher ed that any changes to our curriculum, no matter how small, could empower currently enrolled students to request a full refund of ALL tuition. The course catalog at time of enrollment was essentially a binding contract. So any changes we made were rolled out to apply to new enrollees, or made only after explicit approval by each student, in writing.
The requirements may be different for schools which are not primarily business and vocational schools (which are notorious for going out of business with little warning), but it’s certainly worth checking out. You may not be able to finish your degree at your school, but you may be entitled to a full refund of all tuition and fees you’ve spent.
Question for those who have had programs canceled without compensation: did you request a tuition refund? Did you contact your board of education for help?
I wouldn’t expect a school to make it widely known if that is an option (we certainly never told anyone that, nor were we required to; we simply hoped disgruntled students would drop out and walk away), but I’m wondering if you sought redress and it failed.
Again, speculation: I would assume that if you did half an M.A. at school x, and your program was halfway respectable and accredited to begin with, you could probably get advanced placement in a comparable program. Or at least I should hope so.
Now you guys have got me freaking out. I need to spend less time on here and hurry up and finish my thesis!! :eek:
Yes, the program has been recommended for removal by the Chancellor, and will have to pass two rounds of voting - board of supervisors and board of regents. And, as Library programs are worthless without accreditation, the faculty is on top of that too. I don’t doubt that I’d be able to get my money back. It’s the time wasted, and the fact that I’d have to start over and possibly move to another state. And to address a previous poster’s comment - this isn’t a small school. You’ve ALL heard of it, I’m sure…
The only person who can address your concerns is the Chair of your department.
I’m faculty in a department that had it’s MS program cut two years ago. The immediate effect of this was simply that we were no longer accepting students for the following academic year–this really only affected students who were not yet enrolled. For existing students, as long as they finished their degree within the seven year time limit, they were still officially in the program. The program which no longer existed.
So, really it came down to how much the department would be willing and able to support the program in terms of offering graduate classes, making exceptions to the stated requirements (i.e., allowing students to take more classes for credit outside the department), and so forth. Ultimately–at my institution, anyway–these decisions are the responsibility of the Chair. If s/he wants to continue to offer a couple of courses, the department will; if not, the department won’t. Faculty who had thesis advisees did not, of course, just drop them and declare the “thesis over”–they continued to work with their students (those that stuck around, anyway). Of course, the really bad news for these students was that Graduate Assistantships to the department were cut–the Graduate Dean saw no reason to continue to fund grads in a defunct program, so anyone who DID hang around did so without an assitantship.
My school cut a Bachelor’s program in the Fall semester once, stranding about 20 or so folks in their last year of the degree. They were in effect told to transfer to another University. :rolleyes:
