Ohio explores 3-year bachelor's degrees
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Ohio higher education leaders are exploring options for three-year bachelor's degrees, including at Ohio State University.
Why it matters: Graduates could enter the workforce a year sooner, while potentially saving thousands in tuition and living expenses.
- The effort is part of a nationwide push to shorten the college experience as students and families increasingly question its value.
State of play: A 120-credit, four-year model has been the standard for most bachelor's degrees for over a century.
- Senate Bill 1, Ohio's sweeping higher education law that took effect in June 2025, mandated the state study the feasibility of offering three-year options.
- The nonprofit Jobs for the Future is convening officials from Ohio and Virginia to discuss the possibility of 90-credit bachelor's programs.
- That includes representatives of the Ohio Department of Higher Education and 10 universities in the state.
The big picture: Ohio now joins roughly a dozen states offering or exploring shorter options. The first ones launched in 2024 in Utah.
- Existing programs typically reduce electives — and costs — while preserving core major requirements.
Follow the money: In-state tuition at Ohio's four-year universities averaged around $13,000 last school year, before room and board, per Signal Ohio.
Reality check: A state report from June says the model is "unlikely to be appropriate for every field," but identified business and tech as fields that showed promise.
- It also noted "continued uncertainty" about how reduced-credit degrees would affect credit transferability, professional licensure, graduate school admissions and employer perceptions.
Zoom in: Planning at Ohio State University is "just getting started," and spokesperson Ben Johnson didn't have any specifics to share as of last week.
- "We're always interested in ways to lower costs and expand access to a world-class, academically rigorous Ohio State education," he told Axios in an email.
University of Cincinnati is eyeing degrees in information technology and professional studies, vice provost for enrollment management Jack Miner tells Axios.
- The latter is an online program that's already popular with "working adults" — a group the state report says could benefit from more "efficient routes to a degree."
The other side: National faculty groups say three-year degrees don't address the underlying issue of skyrocketing tuition and could weaken a traditional liberal arts education.
What's next: Participating universities are working toward offering two 90-credit programs as early as spring 2028.