The UNC system is likely to undergo some major structural shifts as a result of the UNC Tomorrow commission’s recommendations. Two concepts discussed at the March Board of Governors meeting will likely have considerable effect on where many North Carolina students attend classes in the future.
One proposed change will give the system’s General Administration (GA) a greater role in deciding whether individual universities can start new programs. Priority will shift from the needs of the individual schools to the broader needs of the state. This is directly a result of UNC Tomorrow recommendations that policy should be set “in light of state and regional needs from a ‘system perspective’” so that programs “complement each other, maximize resources, and avoid unnecessary duplication.”
UNC president Erskine Bowles called the proposal a “huge policy shift.”
There are currently 2,021 bachelor’s or higher degree programs in the entire UNC system: 1073 offer undergraduate degrees, 948 are graduate programs. Alan Mabe, the vice president for academic planning, said that the system undergoes considerable transition: since 1972, 668 new programs have been established, while 409 have been discontinued.
Currently, new bachelor’s and master’s degree programs are initiated by the individual school, who submit their proposals to the GA. The GA conducts an investigation, focusing on student demand, the potential for jobs in the degree area, and whether the necessary resources exist, and then decides to permit the program or deny approval.
In the future, if the change is enacted, the GA’s role will be “proactive.” The central administration will establish the need for new programs, as well as review degree programs in order to determine their “productivity, quality, and effectiveness. Economic development and employment concerns will enter into the process, as well as student demand. This will be accomplished by periodic “assessment of regional and statewide needs,” according to the presentation. Mabe added that he expects undergraduate programs to be reviewed every two years.
After a need is identified, the system will initially check if it can be filled by expanding existing programs. Should that option be unavailable, other venues will be explored, such as collaborative efforts with existing programs at other schools. Mabe said if there is already a high-quality program in existence, the system should look to build on it rather than starting from scratch.
Mabe offered an example of this type of collaboration: the Doctor of Pharmacy Partnership Program between UNC-Chapel Hill and Elizabeth City State University, which enrolls ten to fifteen pharmacy students annually. The students receive their degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill, but attend classes at Elizabeth City, in an area with considerable unmet demand for pharmacists. “If they do their clinical work there, they are likely to stay in the area after graduation,” said Mabe after the meeting.
The GA will also look for programs throughout the state that suffer from chronic under-enrollment and either eliminate them or replace them with online programs.
The second proposition recommends creating “branch campuses” of UNC schools at community colleges. This will enable far more North Carolina students to earn four-year bachelors’ degree as commuters, rather than being forced to move near one of the sixteen main campuses for the final two years of their education.
According to Harold Martin, the GA’s vice president for academic affairs, much of the state is one-half hour or more away from state universities, making commuting difficult. Other states have long had branch campus systems to alleviate the growing need for local colleges. A partnership between the university system and the community colleges will enable North Carolina to develop a branch system at a low cost, Martin said.
The state is also exploring a “storefront model” to bring higher education to underserved communities. This January, the first class began at the N.C. Center for Engineering Technologies in Hickory. The center enables students who have already completed their two-year associate’s degrees at local community colleges to take courses that will apply toward a degree program at Appalachian State University.
Martin said students will initially attend the community colleges for their first two years. Upon receiving their associate’s degree they must apply to the state university the branch campus is attached to. Once accepted, they can then take classes from university professors at the community college to complete their degree. Martin said distance learning (courses taken online, rather than in a classroom setting) will be an important part of the educational process at the branch schools.
This type of “two plus two” arrangement is already in existence at a few UNC schools. Coastal Carolina Community College in Onslow County and UNC-Wilmington have formed a partnership to offer “two plus two” teacher training for elementary education. Like the pharmacy program at Elizabeth City, this is intended to fill a local need, since Onslow County schools have a difficult time attracting and retaining teachers.
As the student population at a particular branch campus substantially increases over time, the UNC system will eventually have to decide whether to build an entire new school or continue at the community college location, Martin added after the meeting.
Both of these proposals will remain under discussion before the Board of Governors votes to take further action.