The UMaine System Board of Trustees has approved a pilot to accelerate degree programs for older students.
While 120 credits are required to earn a traditional degree, adult learners may now earn certain bachelor's degrees with 90 credits.
These will be the first 90-credit bachelor's degree programs in the state, according to System Spokesperson Samantha Warren, and is specifically for adult learners to meet urgent workforce needs across the state.
Megan Walsh, Dean at the University of Maine at Machias, said her university will pilot a College Studies program that allows students to tailor their degrees to their current careers.
"So for students bringing in considerable transfer credit or who are already in the workforce, which is so far all of them in the 120 credit program. They will build a project, a self directed project with a faculty advisor, that speaks to the work they are already doing," Walsh said.
The board is requiring pilot participants to have some prior college credit and be out of school for at least two years by passing a new definition of adult degree completion.
The pilot includes degrees in Business Management, Psychology and Public Administration, some of the most popular completion programs at their respective universities. The programs will be online.
The System will submit these programs to the New England Commission for Higher Education for accreditation and hopes students can start as early as next summer.
