Eight CA community colleges to offer Bachelors degrees

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Abner, Jan 21, 2015.

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  1. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    That's all I know right now.

    Abner
     
  2. cbear42

    cbear42 New Member

    Here's a little more information.

    California community colleges to begin offering bachelor's degrees

    The degrees won't be offered until 2017 - and there is this, as well:

    "A provision of the law restricts the four-year degrees offered by community colleges to programs not offered by the California State University or University of California systems. Subject areas must also address unmet workforce needs, resulting in programs that are generally vocational or technical in nature."

    Apparently 15 schools were accepted out of 34 community colleges who submitted proposals. About half of the community colleges did not submit a proposal to start providing 4-year degrees.
     
  3. novadar

    novadar Member

    This is just like the teaser HTML only line of text on the CNN page when you really, really, really want more details.
     
  4. nyvrem

    nyvrem Active Member

    this was very anticlimax.
     
  5. novadar

    novadar Member

    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 21, 2015
  6. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    This is a relatively small pilot program, originally announced in September 2014. Only 15 (of 112) California community colleges will participate, and they can only offer one bachelor's program each. More info in this previous degreeinfo thread.

    Note that the community colleges are not allowed to duplicate existing bachelor's programs at California State University or University of California campuses. So they will be focused on career-oriented bachelor's degrees, rather than traditional academic degrees. These types of bachelor's degrees are more typically offered by for-profit schools.

    If successful, the pilot program will presumably be expanded.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 21, 2015
  7. Abner

    Abner Well-Known Member

    Thanks Caldog! One of the bachelor's degree will be in mortuary sciences offered by Cypress College. Interesting.
     
  8. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Alert! I am about to drag this thread off-topic!

    Did you know that Nanette Asimov, the writer of the article linked above, is the niece of wicked famous sci-fi author Isaac Asimov (one of my favorites)? Well, it's true. So what? you ask. In response I quietly return to the Mod Closet until it strikes me again to post another entirely unnecessary comment. You may now return to the topic at hand.
     
  9. GoodYellowDogs

    GoodYellowDogs New Member

    I wish they had added more nursing programs at the AS level or BS level - we are woefully short in nursing programs in CA.
     
  10. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Cypress College has a Mortuary Science Department, which offers an AS degree. The AS program has programmatic accreditation from the American Board of Funeral Service Education (ABFSE), which is a CHEA-recognized accreditor.

    Cypress College is in Orange County (i.e. southern California). There is only one other ABFSE-accredited AS program in the state, at American River College in Sacramento (i.e. northern California), which is also a community college. The forthcoming Cypress BS program will apparently be the only ABFSE-accredited BS program west of Oklahoma.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 21, 2015
  11. novadar

    novadar Member

    But isn't this degree inflation? Does one really need a Bachelors degree to be a Mortician? Honestly I don't know but if CA was fine for so long with only AAS Morticians, why the need for Bachelor degree qualified?
     
  12. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    From what I can tell (and I am not an authority in this field either), you don't "need" a BS degree to become a mortician; you can become licensed with an AS. The BS appears to be an optional extra, which some consider a worthwhile investment. It might be something like an MBA: you don't strictly "need" an MBA to work in business, but many people consider it to be a worthwhile investment anyway.

    The AS in mortuary science appears to be a relatively specialized and technical curriculum that primarily focuses on one thing: how to deal with dead bodies. This is presumably the primary training that a mortician needs; however, it is also rather narrow.

    It looks like the BS degree branches out into the more general fields of business (with emphasis on business concepts that are relevant to funeral services) and psychology (with emphasis on counseling the bereaved). It's probably true that business and counseling abilities are less essential for a mortician than the ability to deal with dead bodies, but it still seems like they could be useful for a career in this field.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 21, 2015
  13. novadar

    novadar Member

    It will be interesting to see how many enroll in these "Applied Technical" Bachelor Degrees.
     
  14. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Each of the 112 California community colleges offers dozens of associate's degree programs. Put them all together, and there are thousands of associate's degree programs. And of those thousands, California is expanding only 15 to the bachelor's level -- just a tiny percentage.

    So California is obviously moving cautiously here. You can be sure they will be monitoring enrollments carefully, to gauge the level of interest.
     
  15. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    Riverside CC offers a Physicians Assistant certification program which the student then continue to a bachelor degree that is offered in cooperation with a non-state school. Perhaps RCC will now offer a BS in PA.
     
  16. Ian Anderson

    Ian Anderson Active Member

    I wonder if fees for the 300 and 400 level courses will be substantially higher than current fees (last time I checked were less than $30 per semester unit).
     
  17. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Yes:

     
  18. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    The PA field is actually transitioning to the master's (not the bachelor's) as the entry-level degree. Riverside CC currently has an arrangement with St. Francis University (of Pennsylvania) that allows their students to continue on towards the master's after certification.

    St. Francis requires a bachelor's degree, as well as enrollment in the PA certificate program. In theory, it might be possible someday to complete both the certificate program and the bachelor's at Riverside CC. But this is not going to happen in the near future, because Riverside CC is not in the (very limited) bachelor's degree pilot program.

    UC Davis has a PA master's program. It wouldn't surprise me if other UC campuses start similar programs in the future.
     
  19. NorCal

    NorCal Active Member

    I'm shocked my cc didn't make the list. They have been listed as one of the top five cc's in California (Usually ranked number 2)
     
  20. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Traditionally, the "best" California community colleges are considered to be the ones that channel lots of 2-year graduates into neighboring 4-year schools, particularly CSUs and UCs. Probably your CC is like that.

    But if so -- then it is *not* a good fit for the pilot CC bachelor's program.

    California already has many good-quality to great-quality public 4-year schools, in the CSU and UC systems. So why might we need 4-year programs at CCs ?

    Answer: because some CC graduates have no place to go, even with the CSU and UC options.

    For example, the Cypress College Mortuary Science program was discussed earlier in this thread. If you have an AS from this program, and you want to continue on for a bachelor's, what are your options? The UCs and CSUs don't offer anything in Mortuary Science, and have no interest in doing so. The nearest school that offers the bachelor's in Mortuary Science is at the University of Central Oklahoma.

    Realistically, the existing options are not great. So maybe it makes sense to improve those options by extending the Cypress program to the BS level. Let's test it and see (keep in mind that this program is officially just a test).

    If the graduates from your CC are successfully transferring to 4-year programs at CSUs and UCs, then that's great. But -- this means that they already have good options for the bachelor's degree. The whole point of the pilot program is to serve students who do *not* have good options.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 25, 2015

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