RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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SALT LAKE CITY \u2014 Giles Sims, 34, was sick of getting passed over for jobs because he didn't have a college degree.But with a wife and a widowed mother to help support, he needed a quick solution. So the laid-off web developer turned to one of a growing number of three-year degree programs."I can't afford to be out of the workforce for four years. That just seems like forever, and the three-year made it seem less daunting," said Sims, a student at Ensign College, a private Salt Lake City school that recently changed all its bachelor's degrees to require fewer classes than a traditional four-year degree.The condensed programs have exploded in popularity. As of this spring, 26 U.S. states have a college that offers at least one reduced-credit, three-year bachelor's degree, according to the nonprofit research group RAND.Advocates say these programs are a solution to the college affordability crisis and a godsend for non-traditional students like Sims.Critics, however, worry that they'll narrow too much what students learn, confuse employers, limit graduate school options and create headaches in fields that require state licenses.The American Association of University Professors, for one, says the programs devalue the meaning of a college credential."This is not innovation. This is just cutting corners," said its president, Todd Wolfson.For decades, colleges have offered accelerated programs that let students finish faster, often by forgoing long summer breaks, maximizing transfer credits and condensing semester-long courses into shorter, five- to 10-week terms.But those programs maintained the same course load, measured as credits. The new programs let students finish faster by completing as few as 90 credit hours. That shaves a year off the typical 120-hour bachelor's degree.Three-year bachelor's degrees are common in other countries, including the United Kingdom, India, France and Italy. But they can create complications for graduates seeking admission to U.S. graduate schools, which sometimes require extra coursework.Some of the earliest colleges in colonial America, modeled after English institutions like Oxford and Cambridge, initially had three-year degrees, said John Thelin, the author of "A History of American Higher Education." By the 19th century, the four-year format had taken hold, partly because there wasn't an established system of public high schools to prepare students, Thelin said."The colleges would have to
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