DICKINSON, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – Dickinson State University on Thursday became the first North Dakota college to have a reduced-credit degree program approved by the State Board of Higher Education.
The board voted to approve Dickinson State’s plan for a 90-credit bachelor’s degree program in management. Undergraduate degrees typically require 120 credit hours, but the board earlier this year adopted a policy to let colleges test reduced-credit programs.
All reduced-credit programs, which are limited to applied sciences, require board approval.
Dickinson State’s application cited a need for people with technical training to be able to advance their careers with a management degree.
“What employers were looking at … is one individual who could supervise eight to 10 technicians, and that individual needed some additional skills in management, how to schedule, how to deal with the human resources side, some basic budgeting and bookkeeping,” Holly Gruhlke, vice president of academic affairs and provost at DSU, said in an interview.
She said the potential students in the program didn’t want it to take four years.
“They don’t want the traditional liberal arts type of program. They want the meat of the program and to get the skills they needed to be able to advance into those positions,” Gruhlke said.
Dickinson State’s application also says “the program offers a faster pathway for students interested in management who do not have prior training or education.”
The program would typically be completed in three years by a full-time student attending in the fall and spring semesters. It says a student attending college in the summer could get a bachelor’s degree in as little as two years.
Dickinson State President Scott Molander, in answering questions for the board, said he recently met with energy industry representatives who emphasized interpersonal communication skills and safety training as other areas of need.
The curriculum mostly eliminates the need for elective courses.
“Rather than reducing the depth of instruction, the program streamlines the curriculum by focusing on essential management, leadership, and business competencies and reducing excess electives that do not directly support program objectives,” the application says.
The application included a letter of support from Dakota Community Bank and Trust of Dickinson saying that the program could improve the talent pool for the bank and other businesses in the region.
Board Chair Kevin Black said the program was exactly what the board had in mind in supporting reduced-credit programs. The board voted unanimously to approve the pilot.
The college’s application says the 90-credit bachelor of applied science in management program would launch in the fall. But that may not be realistic, Gruhlke said.
The program also needs approval from the Higher Learning Commission, the accrediting agency for colleges in the Upper Midwest. Just setting up a site visit can be a months-long process, she said.
Gruhlke is hopeful the program can be available to students in the next academic year.
Lisa Johnson, deputy commissioner for academic and student affairs for the North Dakota University System, said the Higher Learning Commission has approved about 15 reduced-credit degree programs so far as interest in the concept grows. She said management programs like the one submitted by Dickinson State have been popular.
More proposals from North Dakota colleges are likely to come before the board in the next couple of months, Johnson said.
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