However school officials say nothing is set in stone yet
Purdue University could cut dozens of “low-enrollment programs” to comply with state law in the coming years, according to reports.
Current law requires public universities to cut smaller programs unless they obtain a waiver. The threshold is typically 10 students in an associate degree program and 15 in a bachelor’s program, with graduate programs given more leeway – doctorate programs must have at least three students, according to various analyses.
However, the university said a list circulated by the campus newspaper is “outdated.” The public university said a list of potential programs under scrutiny will not be ready until the next of this upcoming school year.
“Any potential decisions would follow in accordance with that future list by the end of the 2025-26 academic year,” a June 10 news release shared with The College Fix stated. “Lists recently shared by the media are not accurate.
Purdue also said there will be “no immediate program changes” and students would be allowed to finish their degree. The Big Ten university in West Lafayette, In. said programs could also be merged.
Many of the degrees that were listed by the student newspaper as being on the “chopping block” fall under the School of Languages and Cultures. Jen William, the head of the school, gave similar responses to The Fix as provided by the university.
“Actually there are no plans for languages to be cut at Purdue, although the degrees might take a slightly different form in future,” William wrote in an email. “All students will be able to finish their language degrees and there are no plans to cut faculty.”
She said “due to the new state legislation, we need a way of reporting our number of language majors and number of degrees completed, which has remained stable in recent years, in aggregate rather than as separate degree programs.”
William also said her school “remains strong.”
[W]e award the largest number of credit hours across all departments and schools in the College of Liberal Arts, as well [as] the largest number of minors,” William said.
Several education experts provided commentary on how schools should approach the potential elimination of programs.
“Schools should weigh the cost/benefit of keeping or cutting low-enrollment programs,” Chance Layton said. He is the communications director for National Association of Scholars, which advocates for higher education reform.
“Most schools should consider not only the public good of providing quality programs, but also the cultural significance of maintaining certain programs,” he said. “After all, the purpose of a college education is to enrich culture and shape character.”
“Schools must also be fiscally responsible,” he said. “At times, specializing in certain liberal arts programs may be more effective than attempting to cover them all… Most liberal arts programs have committed suicide through ineptitude. This is a tragedy.”
The Fix also emailed the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, or ACTA. The Fix asked if the group saw a trend in universities cutting degrees and the reason behind this. ACTA’s data analyst Anna Sillers provided comment via a media statement.
“Cutting academic programs should be a last resort for institutions,” Sillers said. “Our research has found that instructional spending is positively correlated with graduation rates, so schools should look hard at their entire budget before cutting any academic programs.”
“Anecdotally, I have found that humanities are the first to go when colleges cut programs,” Siller said. “Instead of cutting programs, we encourage colleges to [work] with other schools to merge low-enrollment programs instead of cutting programs altogether.”
Layton with National Association of Scholars also provided comments on higher education trends.
“Many institutions are cutting degrees,” he said. “This is due to several factors, including declining enrollment resulting from a demographic cliff; the decline of the liberal arts through the proliferation of grievance studies and other ‘studies’ programs, such as ‘gender studies’ and ‘ethnic studies,’ and the general erosion of standards within liberal arts programs.”
“Those two problems, coupled with a refocus on STEM, mean that there are not enough students to fill out these programs,” Layton said.
“Employers also no longer trust degrees from many liberal arts programs to produce good employees.”
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IMAGE CAPTION AND CREDIT: A classroom with few students is shown; Yan Krukau/Pexels