UMPI Proposing 90-Credit YourPace BLS and Applied Psychology BA

[ss20ts]

Many institutions require a second language for their general education, not electives.

Is this true, though? It wasn't when I was an undergraduate, and that was mumble years ago. I haven't seen it be true for any of my kids either and that was obviously more recent.

State universities here require a language. Many private universities do as well especially liberal arts schools. May not be the same everywhere.

[midnite123]

Many institutions require a second language for their general education, not electives.  It doesn't matter if you have over 90 credits for, it will not waive any requirements, unless you already have it from Sophia.org, Study.com, or another ACE option.  The only way to actually waive requirements for general education and electives, is if you already hold a Bachelors degree and going for a second one at UMPI.

Definitely agree!

I was saying that I thought that languages,
 as well as other classes,
 could be turned into electives 
   in some 90 credit programs.

I was just adding my 2 cents in on 90 credit degrees.

I think it will be interesting to see how these degrees develop going forward!

As Always,
I appreciate your great explanations!

[Ares]

There are many schools that do not require a language for their GEC such as MIT and NJIT. It is a Liberal Arts school holdover that should be an elective, especially for an Applied Degree.

[midnite123]

There are many schools that do not require a language for their GEC such as MIT and NJIT. It is a Liberal Arts school holdover that should be an elective, especially for an Applied Degree.

I agree!

[Jonathan Whatley]

In a long list of actions of its meeting of April 23-24, 2026, the New England Commission of Higher Education, NECHE, the historic regional accreditor for New England, lists briefly with no further detail that it did not approve Innovation Proposals from the University of Maine System (University of Maine at Presque Isle and University of Maine at Augusta).

I suspect these were the proposals from UMPI and UMA for 90-credit bachelor’s degrees.

This doesn’t mean the proposals are dead, only that they’ve been delayed. It looks entirely like the normal course of doing business with an accrediting agency. At the same meeting, NECHE did not approve Innovation Proposals from the University of New England, while they did accept Innovation Proposals from Suffolk University and from the University of New Hampshire. At the prior most recent meeting at which NECHE considered Innovation Proposals, in September 2025, they similarly did not approve an Innovation Proposal from Johnson & Wales University, while they did accept an Innovation Proposal from Unity Enviromental University.

UMPI and UMA may just need to come back to NECHE with additional information or assurances. UMA’s 90-credit bachelor’s proposal isn’t CBE and it’s outside of the YourPace platform.

[studyingfortests]

Maybe we are beginning to see a paradigm shift in higher education.

As in a race to the bottom? I could understand it better if I thought that universities would require 120 credits for entry into their Master's degree programs, or a combined 150 credits for a Master's degree. but I bet they won't.

There's already some movement in that direction.  USC, as you may remember, got into that big debacle with 2U, the large Online Program Manager that did such a shoddy job with USC's programs that both they and USC got sued by students. 

This resulted in USC separating from 2U (by paying them millions of dollars as a cancellation fee.) 

One of the problems USC had in competing with other schools for their online MSW was that they were obscenely expensive ($120K for a 60 credit MSW, with other accredited MSWs going for as little as 25K).  

What was USC's solution? Not to lower the cost per unit for tuition, but to somehow convince CSWE, the accreditor for social work, to let them offer a 45 credit MSW.  Which lowers the cost of the USC MSW to about $90K... still 3x other schools, for an education with 25% less content.

It does seem that there is, at least with some schools, a race to the bottom.

[drey]

It is very simple just make the Applied Bachelor's degrees 90 credits and for gods sake remove the language requirement. This does not cheapen anything. They just need a 90 credit Bachelors of Applied Science in Computer or Technical Studies which will be a gold mine.

What's wrong with learning another language? Only in America do people act like learning another language is a bad thing. There are plenty of people who live in America who know multiple languages. I don't know why so many people on here are against taking a single semester of a language. It's not it harms you in any way. You may actually learn something new and enjoy it. Oh the horror.

Yeah man, cool

And I can also learn it without taking a college course

[ss20ts]

It is very simple just make the Applied Bachelor's degrees 90 credits and for gods sake remove the language requirement. This does not cheapen anything. They just need a 90 credit Bachelors of Applied Science in Computer or Technical Studies which will be a gold mine.

What's wrong with learning another language? Only in America do people act like learning another language is a bad thing. There are plenty of people who live in America who know multiple languages. I don't know why so many people on here are against taking a single semester of a language. It's not it harms you in any way. You may actually learn something new and enjoy it. Oh the horror.

Yeah man, cool

And I can also learn it without taking a college course

The purpose of the forum is college courses.

[freeloader]

It is very simple just make the Applied Bachelor's degrees 90 credits and for gods sake remove the language requirement. This does not cheapen anything. They just need a 90 credit Bachelors of Applied Science in Computer or Technical Studies which will be a gold mine.

What's wrong with learning another language? Only in America do people act like learning another language is a bad thing. There are plenty of people who live in America who know multiple languages. I don't know why so many people on here are against taking a single semester of a language. It's not it harms you in any way. You may actually learn something new and enjoy it. Oh the horror.

Yeah man, cool

And I can also learn it without taking a college course

Not sure there is anything that really requires taking a college course, with the possible exception of learning how to run a college course. 

My dad, a retired dentist, didn’t go to 2 years of his dental school classes. He got the textbooks and pretty much memorized them then took the midterms and finals. Graduated with high honors and completed all of his degree and state requirements for licensure in 3 years. Outside of the obvious—that having dental degree is required to be licensed as a dentist and the degree requires classes—did he really need the classes?

[ss20ts]

Not sure there is anything that really requires taking a college course, with the possible exception of learning how to run a college course. 

My dad, a retired dentist, didn’t go to 2 years of his dental school classes. He got the textbooks and pretty much memorized them then took the midterms and finals. Graduated with high honors and completed all of his degree and state requirements for licensure in 3 years. Outside of the obvious—that having dental degree is required to be licensed as a dentist and the degree requires classes—did he really need the classes?

Surely he went to the labs and hands on classes. Was he a great dentist? Maybe. Maybe not. Could he have been a better dentist? Probably and I say this because my experience with dentists in various areas of the country have been dreadful to awesome. Most have been crappy to dreadful. There were 2 that were positive. 2 out of at least 8 dentists. Not great odds. 

Today, classes have far more than a midterm and a final exam. Many professors include class participation as part of your grade and you can fail some classes with poor attendance or lack of participation.