<p>I always understood part of the reason some kids take so long to graduate from UT is that they can’t get into classes they need. With recent cutbacks, getting classes will only become harder it seems.</p>
<p>It sounds like the proposal would include some safeguards to protect students who have been shut out of required courses through no fault of their own, or who are enrolled in majors that frequently require more than 8 semesters.</p>
<p>I think good advising will have to be stressed. Also, students will have to show up for college with a better idea of what they are good at, what they are interested in, and what their future plans are–at least generally.</p>
<p>Of course, it would help if high schools did a better job of enabling students to discover what they are good at, what they are interested in, etc. before they get to college.</p>
<p>UCLA had a minimum progress requirement back in the 70’s, though I don’t remember it having a cap as such on the number of quarters, and some limit on the maximum number of units you could earn. I’ve heard that Columbia has a pretty strict policy for Columbia College. CU has a four year promise for students who meet certain criteria.</p>
<p>I don’t think that a cap is necessarily a bad idea, but I’d agree with midmo that colleges are going to have to do more than just set a limit. I’d add stricter entrance requirements so that students aren’t taking remedial classes in college, and more student-centered scheduling practices, so that enough sections of courses students actually need are offered. That last one, in particular, is going to require college administrations to start imposing requirements on departments rather than allowing departments to decide how many sections of what courses will be taught. Given that some senior faculty disdain teaching freshman-level courses, that could be interesting. (And given that some faculty buy their way out of teaching with research $, it could be even more interesting.)</p>
<p>D’s college has a nifty first two year course plan that shows semester by semester exactly what needs to be taken when in order to be “on schedule” for timely graduation, and it shows how your completed courses (and AP credits) fill in the various boxes. If a student wants to consider a different major, he or she just needs to pull down the two year plan for that major and see how the completed coursework applies. I think that it is a huge improvement over the old college catalog approach. (It also helps that her school seems to sit on departments that try and require “their” statistics or writing course, for example, a problem that I saw quite a bit back in the day.)</p>
<p>In terms of staffing levels, buying out of a course should not reduce the U’s ability to cover its courses. The grant money used for the buy-out is paid as salary to someone else for teaching the course–often an adjunct, sometimes another regular faculty member who takes on an increased course load (that is my experience, anyway).</p>
<p>I agree that senior faculty should participate in teaching introductory courses. I don’t know if this proposal would have that effect, but it would be good if it did.</p>
<p>Should schools require that a major be declared sooner? For many schools, students may remain undeclared through the end of sophomore year. It seems to me that could lead to some extra semesters.</p>
<p>First thing that I thought of was how tough UT Engineering programs are. Then I saw this:</p>
<p>“The rule would not apply to degree programs designed to be completed in more than four years, such as some architecture and engineering programs.”</p>
<p>YDS this is one reason my d was drawn to smaller LACs. She’s hopeful of getting more hand-holding as far as scheduling classes goes. Time will tell.</p>
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<p>I would hope as UT implements this policy, it will give students more guidance in their schedules.</p>
<p>I wonder why more schools don’t treat summer session with a less expensive cost structure, with the same kinds of discounts for in-state students? In terms of increasing capacity without much infrastructure cost increase it really does a lot for not much in the way of marginal costs.</p>
<p>UCLA still has minimum progress, we have to take 13.5 units average per quarter, and are limited to something around 200 something units max before they kick you out, the only way you can go over that limit is if you demonstrate graduation within 4 years.</p>