Thoughts on the New Johnson & Wales 3 Year Degree Programs

[blossom]

Johnson and Wales is definitely a “fit” institution. Great for some kids; not for others. But in CS I don’t think any employer confuses Johnson and Wales with CMU, UIUC, etc. Different type of student; different degree of preparation for the more theoretical and mathematical side of CS; different outcomes.

[gwnorth]

@confusedaboutFA

I imagine that exceptions already exist for schools like Oxford and Cambridge, but the vast majority of colleges that attempt this will not get such nice treatment.

Bologna process 3 year degrees, of which the UK is a signatory, are considered equivalent to North American 4 year bachelor’s. Also remember that in England and a few other European countries, high school is 5 years. A levels in the UK system is equivalent to the 1st year of university in North America (as is year 2 of CEGEP in Quebec). That’s part of the reason why university is shorter (but also because they mostly don’t have any gened requirements).

When I attended university in Ontario we still had 5 years of high school (grade 13) and you had the option of doing a 3 or 4 year bachelor’s degree. 3 year degrees still had some room built in to them to take non-major electives. When grade 13 was eliminated graduates of 3 year programs had the option of having their bachelor’s converted to “honours” degrees. 3 year/90 credit bachelor degrees still exist at some universities here, though they aren’t that popular. They’re mostly awarded to students who get early admission to professional programs like some medical schools that only require 3 years of undergraduate study.

[gwnorth]

@ucbalumnus

@Twoin18

I find it bizarre that many US majors are so short (often around 50-55 credits out of 120), and even more so that there’s such variation, with engineering often being 70-80 major credits, and BFAs being as many as 80-90.

ABET-accredited engineering majors do need to require at least 75 credits or equivalent (45 in engineering science and engineering design, 30 in math and natural science), although many such programs require more than that. ABET also requires accredited engineering majors to have general education requirements (which is why Brown has some general education requirements for ABET accredited engineering majors but not other majors).

I have 2 kids in university here in Canada.

The first did a science degree and of the 120 credits required for the degree, 81 are for the major and 39 are open electives.

The second is doing Engineering which requires 135 credits for the degree of which 123 are for the major and 12 are restricted electives. The major itself consists of 75 credits Engineering courses, 39 credits Sciences & Math, and 9 credits of additional professional development.

It would be hard to do an Engineering degree in 3 years, but it would be doable for your typical arts & sciences degree if you dropped the majority of the open elective requirements.