College students are shaving a year off their bachelor’s degrees and saving as much as $20,000. Critics say they’re ‘cutting corners’

Giles Sims, 34, was sick of getting passed over for jobs because he didn’t have a college degree.

But with a wife and a widowed mother to help support, he needed a quick solution.

So the laid-off web developer turned to one of a growing number of three-year degree programs.

“I can’t afford to be out of the workforce for four years.

That just seems like forever, and the three-year made it seem less daunting,” said Sims, a student at Ensign College, a private Salt Lake City school that recently changed all its bachelor’s degrees to require fewer classes than a traditional four-year degree.

The condensed programs have exploded in popularity.

As of this spring, 26 U.S. states have a college that offers at least one reduced-credit, three-year bachelor’s, according to the nonprofit research group RAND .

Advocates say these programs are a solution to the college affordability crisis and a godsend for non-traditional students like Sims.

Critics, however, worry that they’ll narrow too much what students learn, confuse employers, limit graduate school options and create headaches in fields that require state licenses.

The American Association of University Professors, for one, says the programs devalue the meaning of a college credential.

“This is not innovation.

This is just cutting corners,” said Todd Wolfson, AAUP’s president.

A new option to graduate more quickly, but with reduced credit For decades, colleges have offered accelerated programs that let students finish faster, often by forgoing long summer breaks, maximizing transfer credits and condensing semester-long courses into shorter, five- to 10-week terms.

But those programs maintained the same course load, measured as credits.