College is too long and too expensive. One major problem is how effective higher education is. Another is that many degrees are not aligned with the needs of the workforce. Additionally, many colleges in Utah’s System of Higher Education will provide the same inefficient degrees. With limited tax dollars, having ineffective programs in multiple schools wastes money.
That is why we support House Bill 265 from Representative Karen Peterson.
This bill introduces requirements for colleges to evaluate every program that they have on campus. Any program found to be inefficient must be modified, consolidated, or eliminated from the college.
While this process is a nice first step, we would like the legislature to go farther. To begin with, the legislature should specify the qualitative and quantitative methods used to measure each college program. Most college programs have data that can be presented in a way to make every program feel like it is effective.
Second, eliminate colleges’ ability to modify ineffective programs. The measures in this bill are required every 5 years. But colleges should be constantly monitoring the effectiveness of their programs. Universities have the opportunity to modify ineffective programs on an annual or even semester basis. But when this 5 year measure happens, the universities should decide if the ineffective program will be eliminated or rolled into another program.
We are encouraged by this step from the legislature, and hope they will continue along this path of making college more effective.
