23 programs scrapped, 7 created as a result of 'low-producing' programs report
Several programs were merged with programs with more graduates.
Published Dec. 23, 2010
Editor's note: The PDF document on the right-hand sidebar contains the letter Chancellor Brady Deaton sent to the Missouri Department of Higher Education Thursday and a table detailing the eliminated, merged and newly created degree programs.
MU will lose 16 degree programs, per the university’s response Thursday to the Missouri Department of Higher Education’s “low-producing” programs report.
“Some of this reduction will come from degrees that will be discontinued and some from merging both ‘low-producing,’ and ‘high-producing,’ degree programs to create a stronger new degree program,” Chancellor Brady Deaton said in a letter Thursday to MDHE Commissioner David Russell and senior associate Rusty Monhollon.
Because of this, some new degree programs will be required, upon receiving the department’s approval. Seven new degree programs are being created, but 23 are being eliminated — making the overall change a 16-program reduction. This total exceeds the number of programs MU had previously expected to cut.
Among the slated proposals, MU plans to combine the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Spanish and French, forming a new Romance Languages bachelor’s and master’s degree.
The Forestry, Parks, Recreation and Tourism and the Soil, Environmental and Atmospheric Science master’s degree programs within the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, will be merged to create one degree covering all seven areas. The Forestry and Soil, Environmental and Atmospheric Science doctoral programs will become one PhD program.
The Exercise Physiology and Nutritional Area master’s program in the School of Human Environmental Sciences will follow this trend, becoming one degree program.
Lastly, the School of Medicine will combine the now-separate Pharmacology and Physiology master’s and doctoral degree programs.
The Environmental Geology Bachelor of Arts and the Geological Sciences Bachelor of Science are two separate, but similar, degrees within the College of Arts and Science. Thus, the Environmental Geology program’s name will be changed to match that of the Geological Sciences program – thus eliminating yet another program.
MU was unable to salvage several programs, including the Career and Technical Education and Special Education’s education specialist degrees and SHP’s Communication Sciences and Disorders doctoral degree. These three programs appeared on a report from MU in early November that predicted their likely elimination.
Also eliminated was SHP’s Clinical Laboratory Sciences bachelor’s program.
“As you know, MU produces 25 percent of all bachelor and master’s degrees granted by public four-year institutions and over 60 percent of all PhDs,” Deaton said. “We have always taken seriously the responsibility to continually review our degree offerings, seeking to respond to student and market demands, as well as to the needs of the state and the nation.”