System IDs Low-Enrolled Courses

The UNC Board of Governors has moved to discontinue or consolidate 56 degree programs across the system as part of a biennial productivity review. The action affects four programs at NC State.

Women’s and gender studies and Africana studies, formerly offered as undergraduate majors, will now be offered as concentrations under the interdisciplinary studies major. The undergraduate major in business and marketing education and the research Ph.D. in physiology will no longer be offered.

Business and marketing education will still be available as an initial licensure option for lateral-entry teachers. These are students with provisional teaching licenses who are coming into teaching from fields other than education to teach classes in business, finance, information technology, marketing and entrepreneurship.

The popular and growing master’s program in physiology is not affected.

Courses Scrutinized

The productivity review, which the BOG has conducted since 1995, flags degree programs that produce a low number of graduates. This year more than 200 programs were flagged for closer scrutiny. The BOG elected to keep many of these programs because they are deemed essential to the school’s mission, provide foundation courses for other majors, serve key industries or regions, or are subject to external constraints.

For example, the BOG preserved many low-enrolled programs in teacher education to help meet the state’s critical need for teachers.

In a statement issued last week, the system said North Carolina has some of the most rigorous degree productivity standards in the nation.

“By regularly examining, strengthening, and realigning programs where appropriate, the UNC system and each UNC institution together support focused efforts to improve program productivity and quality, while ensuring that we are able to meet the evolving needs of our students and the state,” said Junius J. Gonzales, UNC senior vice president for academic affairs.