Hoosier State Slash and Burn

James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal ^ | August 1, 2025 | David Randall

[karpov]

The Indiana Commission for Higher Education, Indiana’s public-university-system leadership, has announced that the state’s public colleges are responding to a new state law by eliminating or merging more than 400 degree programs on the different university campuses, about 20 percent of the total number of degrees offered. Inside Higher Ed summarizes:

The announcement came just before a new state law took effect … setting minimum requirements for how many graduates individual programs must produce at the universities and Ivy Tech Community College, or face termination. […] [The law] says institutions can ask the commission for approval to keep offering degrees that don’t meet the threshold of average annual graduates. But the universities “voluntarily submitted” the first wave of hundreds of programs to be ended or consolidated, the commission said, meaning they didn’t ask for exemptions.

Programs consolidated or eliminated include

undergraduate and graduate degrees in fine arts, English, business, economics, philosophy, history, anthropology, sociology, journalism, public administration, social work, labor studies, political science, American studies, Africana studies, women’s and gender studies, religious studies, and classical studies.

Also affected are STEM degrees, including “some in health, biology, chemistry, math, computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering.”

What’s happening in Indiana illustrates fundamental tensions in education reform. One good idea is increasing efficiency—requiring colleges to justify the programs they offer based on those programs’ return on investment (ROI). Such thinking suggests that government should apportion its support for postsecondary institutions based upon their effectiveness in preparing students for high-paying careers.

Another good idea is to support a core liberal-arts education, including both core STEM knowledge and education in Western civilization, American history, and American government, in order to educate citizens who will preserve our republic and its ideals.

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TOPICS: Education
KEYWORDS: college

[Tell It Right]

Simple. Remove govt money (both federal and state) from higher ed and let the students/parents pay for it (and maybe employers). The free market will determine what education has value.

[Lizavetta]

In my opinion, most majors with “studies” in the name are simply training the next generation of activists who have few skills and very loud mouths.

[SunkenCiv]

IOW, DEI is destroying what was left of higher ed.

[spintreebob]

There has always been this friction between the Rennaissance man and the Medieval specialist.

Til 1960 the dominant force in univerities favored the liberal arts/Rennaissance man. Since 1960 we have gradually trended to the Medieval man.