An argument against the four-year degree
This is not an argument against undergraduate education or the bachelor’s degree. It is an argument against the unreasonable expectation of finishing in four years. One could argue that our higher education credential is fundamentally flawed. Why the Bachelor’s degree of 120 (more or less) hours? (no longer just B.A. or B.S. but with lots of different letters following the B.) Isn’t that essentially anachronistic? We’ve been using it since the deep Middle Ages. We don’t hold to much else from then, so why the term and concept of a “Bachelor’s” degree (itself man-centered, and heaven knows we don’t want any gender-bias now). So why do we? For one, it’s controllable. Everyone knows it. Eight neat little fifteen-hour semesters. Mathematically easy. All the programs have been built around it. It makes money for colleges—there’s a disincentive to do Prior Learning, condense hours, go to a competency-based model. But assuming we stay with 120 (give or take) hours, wh...