Small US Colleges Use Course Sharing to Add New Programs

Small US Colleges Use Course Sharing to Add New Programs

Dylan Smith is in his second year at Adrian College, a small liberal¹ arts school with about 1,600 students in the state of Michigan.

When Smith was looking at colleges, he liked the small college environment at Adrian. And the school wanted him to join its football and wrestling teams. But Smith did not think a liberal arts education would help him get a job, so he planned to study supply-chain management at Michigan State University, which has nearly 50,000 students. Supply-chain management is a field of study on how to handle the flow of goods and services from raw materials to businesses.

But then Adrian College added supply-chain management to its offerings. That made him change his mind and attend Adrian.

"I couldn't say no to getting the degree I wanted from a smaller school instead of at a big university where you're looking at 200 students in a class," said Smith.

Course sharing

An increasing number of mostly small, liberal arts colleges in the United States are drawing students like Smith by sharing courses online with large universities.

The move is a way for small colleges to deal with decreasing numbers of students going to college. In the past ten years, 81 small, private colleges have closed in the U.S. And nearly two-thirds of high school seniors now say a college degree is not worth the cost. The information comes from a New America and Third Way study.

Rick Ostrander is an assistant to the president at Westmont College in southern California. He said, "Course sharing lets us maintain³ what we are, which is small and residential⁴, but compete on selection⁵ and price."

"Hundreds of schools are going to go out of business if we don't figure this out," said Jeffrey Docking⁶, the president of Adrian College. The school has used course sharing to add 17 fields of study in just the last two years, including computer science, web design, cybersecurity and public health.

Parminder Jassal is head of Unmudl which is developing technology to make it easier for colleges to share courses. She said, "We've been sharing through Airbnb. We're sharing cars. We're sharing everything. Higher education is probably the last place the idea of sharing is finally hitting."

More programs, less cost

Some employers⁷ say liberal arts study develops important skills for the workplace, such as the ability to write well and solve problems. But students and their parents worry that a liberal arts education will not be enough to get the kind of jobs they want.

Getting a good job was the most important reason students gave for going to college, a study by the University of California at Los Angeles' Higher Education Research Institute showed.

A 2021 study by the Federal⁸ Reserve found that half of the students who earned bachelor's degrees in liberal arts said they would now choose a different field of study.

Through course sharing, small liberal arts colleges can quickly add the technical programs that students want at less cost. Some community colleges and historically Black colleges and universities are also choosing to use course sharing.

Adrian College says new programs that it has added through course sharing brought 100 additional⁹ students over the last two years. That is equal to more than $8 million in the total cost over four years of those students' education.

It is also less expensive for a college to pay for course sharing than to hire new professors. For many colleges, developing new programs themselves takes too long and costs too much. The firm EAB estimated¹⁰ that it costs as much as $2.2 million to develop a new study program.

"The way that higher education has always worked is, if I wanted to offer those courses to students, I would have had to go out and hire a faculty¹¹ member, add those courses and see if students would take them," said Ann Fulop, a vice² president at Eureka College in Illinois. The school used course sharing to add a computer science study program this year.

President Docking of Adrian College said, "If we're willing to work together, and share some courses, we can offer many, many more... programs for very little cost."

Words in This Story

liberal arts –n. a program of study including a mixture of subjects such as history, philosophy, arts, and languages, as well as the natural sciences

wrestling –n. a sport in which two people compete and try to throw their opponent¹² to the ground and make them stay on the ground.

courses –n. classes of a particular subject taught in schools

seniors –n. students in their fourth year of study in high school or college

residential –adj. having housing¹³ for students, such as a dormitory

firm –n. a business or corporation¹⁴

hire –v. to employ a new worker

faculty –n. professors

1 liberal   

adj.心胸宽阔的；自由(主义)的；慷慨的

参考例句：

• He has a liberal attitude to divorce and remarriage.他对离婚和再婚看得很开。
• This country adopts a liberal foreign policy.该国采用的是开放的外交政策。

2 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

3 maintain   

vt.支撑；赡养，抚养；维持，保有

参考例句：

• He has to maintain a large family on a small salary.他不得不依靠很少的工资养活一家人。
• We must do our best to maintain sales at their usual rate.我们要尽力使销售额保持在平日的水平上。

4 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

5 selection   

n.选择，挑选，精选品，可选择的东西

参考例句：

• We left the selection of the team to the captain.我们把挑选队员的工作交给了队长。
• The shop has a fine selection of cheeses.那家商店有各种精美乳酪可供选购。

6 docking   

n.扣工资

参考例句：

• The tug eased into the narrow docking space. 拖船小心地驶入狭窄的码头停泊处。
• Rendezvous and docking stood fourth in the list of objectives. 第四个目标是实现飞船的会合与对接。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

7 employers   

雇主( employer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Employers must consider all candidates impartially and without bias. 雇主必须公平而毫无成见地考虑所有求职者。
• The onus is on employers to follow health and safety laws. 雇主有义务遵行健康安全法。

8 federal   

adj.联盟的；联邦的；(美国)联邦政府的

参考例句：

• Switzerland is a federal republic.瑞士是一个联邦共和国。
• The schools are screaming for federal aid.那些学校强烈要求联邦政府的援助。

9 additional   

adj.添加的，额外的，另外的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to set down these additional rules.有必要制定这些补充规则。
• I think we can fit in an additional room.我想我们可以再加建一间房子。

10 estimated   

adj．根据估计的

参考例句：

• She estimated the breadth of the lake to be 500 metres. 她估计湖面大约有500米宽。
• The man estimated for the repair of the car. 那人估算了修理汽车的费用。

11 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

12 opponent   

n.对手，敌手，反对者；adj.敌对的，反对的

参考例句：

• The boxer gave his opponent a punch on the nose.这个拳击手朝他对手的鼻子上猛击一拳。
• After a fierce struggle,he got a beat on his opponent.经过殊死的较量，他占了对手的上风。

13 housing   

n.房屋，住宅；住房建筑；外壳，外罩

参考例句：

• Do you think our housing sales will turn around during this year?你认为今年我们的住宅销路会好转吗？
• The housing sales have been turning down since the summer.入夏以来，房屋的销售量日趋减少。

14 corporation   

n.公司，企业&n.社团，团体

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation. 这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• The inflation did the corporation up. 通货膨胀使这个公司破产了。