The NC House released its draft budget last night and it includes a provision requiring Chapel Hill to open a new College of Applied Science and Technology that will have an engineering major. The same provision also instructs the school to look for funding for this and other “high return on investment programs” by cutting or consolidating other programs that are deemed to have a low return on investment or that aren’t highly enrolled.
I have nothing against starting an engineering program at Chapel Hill, but if I were looking at colleges right now, I’d want to be paying very close attention to which majors may not exist within the next four years.
This is very interesting news for those of us in NC. As a transplant who’s lived here since 2000, I was always under the impressions that the state law prohibited UNC Chapel Hill from offering any engineering programs except the biomedical program because those programs were reserved for NC State. And I understood that NC State was similarly prohibited from offering medical degree training for humans (they have the great veterinary school) because those programs were reserved for UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine. All something to do with either the state laws or the board of governors for the schools.
Then again, legal stuph has always been interesting to follow here in North Carolina.
Thanks for the heads up on this new development. We’ll have to see where it all goes…
yes, but also “low ROI.” The law doesn’t state how a major might be evaluated for its return on investment (whose investment? To whom should the return flow? How is that return defined? Is it solely monetary, or is the inherent value of education to be considered?) or what the threshold might be for deciding a given major has a high enough return to justify maintaining it.
At the risk of turning political outside of the politics pages, it has to be admitted/noted that the NC Legislature has increasingly turned UNC’s governance over to politicians and political allies, who have in turn made decisions affecting the school’s academic programs. For better or for worse, I do thing parents and prospective students should be aware of those changes, if only to understand that certain majors/schools may have an uncertain future.
Very interesting. For decades, the state of Georgia had a similar set up, where Georgia Tech was the engineering school, and UGA was the flagship University with no engineering program. This changed a few years ago, and the UGA engineering program is now ABET certified and very well respected. Georgia Tech simply could not keep up with the demand and many highly qualified top of the class kids were rejected in-state every year.
We know some kids who started at Georgia planning to transfer to Georgia Tech, ended up staying at Georgia engineering and secured top internships.
But does NC have a shortage of space in engineering programs statewide? While NCSU has significant capacity limits on some majors, it does not look like NC A&T is hitting capacity limits.
I’ve definitely been hearing more about schools beyond NC State in recent years as good options for in-state residents. UNC Charlotte seems to be a rising star, NC A&T definitely has a solid and well-established reputation for those looking beyond the PWI experience, and Campbell is doing a lot of advertising in the Triangle to attract the folks who don’t want a ginormous campus. There is still that name recognition where NC State dominates, but you’re right, as far as I know, I think there are spaces available out there.
It makes sense, you’ve seen the demand rise in both students interested in engineering and students looking to stay in state to reduce costs. If your in NC and losing engineering students to VATECH you might be able to draw them back with a UNC engineering option.
I just wanted to thank @Momof242729 and @ucbalumnus - this information is really interesting (both the budget language and the chart that shows the number of kids that graduated in each major.)
My son is a rising senior and has Chapel Hill high on his list… but my worry (other than just getting in, which is a big enough concern) is that the thing he wants to major in is not a very robust program here - and it isn’t. (Geography, 19 people for whatever year that data set was.) He loves a lot of things about Chapel Hill, but this is a good data point for him to know. If his major were “consolidated” the other things he’s interested in are not offered at Chapel Hill. I’m sure he’d find something, because what choice would he have, but it’s worth thinking about.
I’m glad to help. In the interest of accuracy, I should note that the budget the NC House put forward – with the mandates about Chapel Hill – has not yet passed into law. The House and the Senate couldn’t agree on a budget and now they’re taking most of July off. It’s not clear whether they’ll end up passing a budget at all this year, and whether the Chapel Hill provisions will survive in the final version (or get passed as an independent bill in the 2025 long session).