Collaborative degree programs considered at universities in Pa.

June 14, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

Leaders of Pennsylvania’s state-owned universities are proposing that students be able to enroll in collaborative degree programs that would combine courses and instructors from more than one of the system’s 14 universities.

A report to be presented to the faculty union today in Harrisburg is expected to include recommendations for “shared programs” in foreign languages and physics, according to officials such as Karen Ball, vice chancellor for external relations for the State System of Higher Education.

Officials said the pilot programs could use software that enables distance learning. The proposal stems from a review of undergraduate and graduate programs that have low enrollments on individual campuses.

“The idea is not to have the student be campus-bound,” Ball said. “The focus is to have our students benefit from being part of a system. These students will get part of their program or a course offering from faculty that’s on a campus that’s not their campus.”

State system administrators are expected to outline today which programs they plan to discontinue or impose an enrollment moratorium on, and which will continue unchanged or with modifications.

The program review began last fall amid financial challenges for the state system schools of Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities.

At least four universities have announced planned or possible cuts in the work force to deal with declining state support and the anticipated loss starting in July 2011 of $38 million in federal stimulus aid.