Dive Transient:
- Drake College, in Iowa, plans to minimize three educational packages after a vote by its board, in keeping with an open letter Monday from President Marty Martin.
- In March, the non-public nonprofit’s administration proposed eliminating 13 majors, minors and certificates. However the college’s college senate voted in April to chop simply three packages, which the board accredited.
- Beneath the plan, Drake will nix its faith main, East Asian research minor and graduate certificates program in evidence-based healthcare. These packages collectively enroll 14 college students, who will probably be allowed to complete their research at Drake, Martin mentioned.
Dive Perception:
In February, Martin mentioned Drake aimed to stability its finances by summer time 2025. As a part of that effort, it’s seeking to minimize prices by greater than 5% for the subsequent educational yr.
It’s additionally attempting to lift extra income by means of new packages, together with a man-made intelligence main, cybersecurity minor and accelerated nursing program.
All of this comes amid monetary headwinds for the establishment. Enrollment at Drake dropped 4.5%, to 4,685 college students, from 2017 to 2022, in keeping with federal knowledge.
For the 2023 fiscal yr, the college’s income fell brief by practically $8 million, in keeping with its newest auditor report. The report additionally confirmed that Drake discounted its tuition with scholarships and fellowships at a price of about 50%.
Since November, Drake trustees and directors have been working with college to align educational packages with demand and workforce wants.
In asserting this system cuts, Martin made a degree to spotlight a few of the college’s successes, together with a 97% employment and graduate program enrollment price for Drake’s graduates.
He additionally pointed to areas of funding within the college, together with an accelerated instructing intern program for grasp’s college students.
“As the upper schooling panorama evolves, we too should evolve,” Martin mentioned. “This isn’t the primary time Drake has navigated by means of a interval of change.”
The 143-year-old establishment is much from the one one making cuts to packages.
For example, Pennsylvania State College President Neeli Bendapudi indicated this yr the establishment would assessment its educational portfolio for areas of duplication. The College of North Carolina at Greensboro has began to wind down 20 educational choices. And, in maybe essentially the most dramatic current instance, West Virginia College determined final yr to ax 28 levels and round 140 college positions.
