Colleges and universities cutting programs are increasingly in the news as schools continue to face financial pressures. Students are shifting their likes and dislikes, some even taking a gap year to decide which university and major are the right fit for them. With these enrollment changes and rising costs, schools are faced with making the tough decision to cut programs
Which degrees are most often cut?
And the list goes on across many universities. Most often impacted are very specialized degree programs or those with declining enrollment due to poor employment prospects after graduation – the most commonly dropped degree programs include:
- Humanities and Social Sciences – Degrees in history, philosophy, English, anthropology, and sociology are the most frequently cut
- Foreign languages – Many schools have either reduced or eliminated language degrees as student demand is low and costs to maintain specialized faculty are high
- Arts and performing arts – Fine arts, theater, and music programs which also require significant resources and facilities
- Education – While job prospects remain strong in education, schools are cutting or consolidating education programs, especially specialized areas.
- Environmental and sustainability – Again, an area with corporate growth in jobs, but is often cut due to low enrollment numbers
- Communication and journalism – The shift in digital media and tough job prospects have hit communications majors hard, especially at small schools
What you need to know and what you can do
These cuts will continue as long as schools face budget issues – While this is hitting small schools particularly hard, many big schools are seeing just as many cuts due to low interest in these majors.
- The University System of Georgia Board of Regents voted in 2022 to cut 215 degrees across colleges in Georgia, including 43 at UGA, 32 and Georgia Southern, and 26 at Augusta
- Penn State announced it is preparing to cut duplicative or under-enrolled majors as it plans to cut its overall budget by $96 million in 2025-26
- WVU cut 30 programs, including all of its foreign language programs, chemistry, environment and community planning, art history, and aviation management, as it faced a $45 million budget deficit
Usually, students in the program will get to complete their degree before the cut is effective – Schools typically try to announce a program cut in advance so that current students can complete their degree, but this is not always the case, especially for incoming freshmen.
Check the enrollment for your major and school’s finances – Like it or not, the degrees where job prospects are worse are the ones that are getting cut. If you are looking at one of these, there are two things you can check in advance to see if there are warning signs. First, check the school’s current enrollment in the program you are seeking. Second, check to see if the school is facing a budget deficit – not all schools are, but the ones are will need to make cuts and those cuts almost always come with programs being dropped.
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