The University of Texas at Arlington announced several degree program cuts and consolidations Friday.
Students currently admitted to or enrolled in affected degree programs will be able to complete them.
The public university will stop admitting students into its bachelor’s degree program for art history and master’s degree programs for sustainable building technology and taxation.
Minors, certificates and elective courses will still be offered.
Bachelor of arts degrees in chemistry, geology and mathematics will merge with bachelor of science degrees in the same subjects.
Bachelor of arts degrees may put more emphasis on liberal arts, while bachelor of science degrees are more technical and science-focused.
The bachelor of arts in theater arts will also merge with the bachelor of fine arts in that subject, and the master of arts in mathematics will merge with the master of science degree for that subject. Specialized programming will remain through a track within single degree programs, according to the website.
UTA will also stop admitting students to the bachelor of arts in anthropology and the master of science and master of engineering degrees in materials science and engineering “while curriculum is reimagined through an interdisciplinary lens,” according to the website.
These changes come after UTA conducted a review of programs this academic year. The Academic Futures Working Group considered data including enrollment trends, graduation and retention rates, costs to the university, faculty workloads, and graduates’ earnings and debt.
“This work is anchored in our strategic plan, our commitment to student success, and our responsibility to ensure that our academic offerings provide meaningful impact for the state of Texas,” the university's website about the changes says.
UTA joins other North Texas universities in making changes to its programs based on factors such as enrollment trends and student outcomes.
Tarrant County College trustees voted in March and April to eliminate or restructure more than a dozen degree and certificate programs. Reasons for doing so included low enrollment and lack of workforce applicability.
The University of North Texas announced in March that more than 80 undergraduate and graduate degrees, minors and certificates would be cut, merged or consolidated as it grapples with a $45 million budget shortfall driven by a decline in international student enrollment. Low enrollment was cited as a reason for the selection of impacted programs.
As area colleges cut programs, they are also adding programs that meet workforce needs.
UTA will launch a doctorate in social work to prepare professionals for advanced practice, teaching and leadership roles in healthcare and higher education.
TCC trustees approved a new air traffic control program last month to prepare students for a field that is both high-wage and in-demand. The college also received approval in January from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to launch a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, the community college’s first bachelor’s degree.
UNT will launch a bachelor of science in artificial intelligence this fall.
McKinnon Rice is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org.
The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
The Report’s higher education coverage is supported in part by major higher education institutions in Tarrant County, including Tarleton State University, Tarrant County College, Texas A&M-Fort Worth, Texas Christian University, Texas Wesleyan University, the University of Texas at Arlington and UNT Health Science Center. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Arlington Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
