University of California System Bans Fully Online Degrees

[Insert Name]

Living in California, my guess is that it is a community driven decision. I can think of 3 UCs off the top of my head where the school basically is the town’s economy, then you throw in the fact that since Covid, even the CC parking lots are empty because people are switching to online courses even at B&M schools, and you get failing economies. This rule would force people to at a minimum, commute to the school for 2 semesters. Again, just my guess.

The smart ones will seek out online programs and attend them. There's a reason WGU and SNHU are so successful.

That depends. A lot of factors to think about.

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This is just for UCs, right? I didn’t see any mention of CSUs.

[davewill]

I think it's worth noting that the change itself is fairly benign. Six quarter credits for three quarters is only 18 quarter or 12 semester credits, not a significant number, really. It's nowhere near a full-time schedule. What's really more interesting are the reasons that they felt so compelled to do it, especially on a system-wide basis.

[allvia]

Living in California, my guess is that it is a community driven decision. I can think of 3 UCs off the top of my head where the school basically is the town’s economy, then you throw in the fact that since Covid, even the CC parking lots are empty because people are switching to online courses even at B&M schools, and you get failing economies. This rule would force people to at a minimum, commute to the school for 2 semesters. Again, just my guess.

I agree that it is more likely about (local) economics than anything. People who attend a school campus contribute more to the local economy - and not just in the short term (duration of the degree), but many graduates tend to stay local to where they went to school.  So, if you're from the east coast and your dream was to attend UCLA (for example) there is a good change if you do actually attend you will likely stay in CA to work and live. I agree that online degrees will become more an more popular, but with the increase of work from home options on the rise since the pandemic HCOL regions of the country have less options to draw (& keep) qualified, often well paid, people in an area. There is a connection to a school, its location, the culture, etc that attending on campus (even if limited) an exclusively online experience cannot match.

[Pats20]

Living in California, my guess is that it is a community driven decision. I can think of 3 UCs off the top of my head where the school basically is the town’s economy, then you throw in the fact that since Covid, even the CC parking lots are empty because people are switching to online courses even at B&M schools, and you get failing economies. This rule would force people to at a minimum, commute to the school for 2 semesters. Again, just my guess.

I agree that it is more likely about (local) economics than anything. People who attend a school campus contribute more to the local economy - and not just in the short term (duration of the degree), but many graduates tend to stay local to where they went to school.  So, if you're from the east coast and your dream was to attend UCLA (for example) there is a good change if you do actually attend you will likely stay in CA to work and live. I agree that online degrees will become more an more popular, but with the increase of work from home options on the rise since the pandemic HCOL regions of the country have less options to draw (& keep) qualified, often well paid, people in an area. There is a connection to a school, its location, the culture, etc that attending on campus (even if limited) an exclusively online experience cannot match.

I agree. What’s insulting is their condescending knock on online learning. Just come out and say exactly as you said if that’s their concern. Say we need our students eating at the local restaurants, spending their incomes and living in our communities. We don’t want to offer a good reasonably priced education to outsiders that aren’t going to contribute to our local economies. Nuff said. 

Smoke and Mirrors.

[addision]

Also recognize that this is the UC system they are speaking of. California has 3 tiers of public colleges; the UC system which are the larger research institutions, Cal-State which are typically non-research universities and the Community colleges.

Typically if you were headed for a research graduate program you wouldn't be looking to use a lot of "alternative" credit on your degree as your chances of say getting into UCLA for a genetics masters or phd would be less with a degree full of non-traditional courses.

I have no problem wanting to keep the standards more stringent at the UC level, there are plenty of other schools to chose from.

[Pats20]

Okay that’s Understandable. But the topic was “fully online degrees” not alt credit. It is definitely Being more “stringent” on access for a significant portion of the population, “standards” wise is debatable.