An effort to offer bachelor’s degrees from the University of Virginia to students at Northern Virginia Community College has raised concerns about the integrity of the state’s “public Ivy.”
About 30 students are enrolled in the reputable community college’s program, new this year. If they complete the program, they will earn a bachelor of science degree from UVa. in interdisciplinary studies. As required, they have earned sufficient transferable credits from
NOVA and passed an alternative admissions process.
Unlike the university’s traditional process, there are no requirements for a foreign language, an SAT score or a minimum grade point average.
According to NOVA’s Julia Brown, that’s part of the point.
“This is for nontraditional students,” she said, explaining the need for a different approach to admissions that recognizes lives inconsistent with typical high school seniors.
And because the program is certified by the University of Virginia, Brown said, worries should dissipate about rigor and quality.
“Faculty are driving up from Charlottesville,” she said. “This is a UVa. program that’s offered on our campus.”
Participating students can earn a concentration in social sciences, but the school is planning to offer a business concentration in coming years. By fall 2010, the degree track will be expanded from its current Alexandria campus to Loudoun or Manassas.
But some worry UVa. could spread itself too thin.
“The program’s goodness or badness depends on the degree to which the university supervises it and ensures that its standards prevail,” said Stephen Balch, chairman of the National Association of Scholars in Princeton, N.J.
Balch said that universities have become “buyer-driven systems,” and in the process have accommodated the needs of students, sometimes at the expense of their traditional educational offerings.
“This is a marketplace in which institutions are scrambling for students,” he said. “One has to be wary about whether the standards of the bachelor’s degree, especially one with the prestige of UVa., are being maintained.”
Students enrolled in NOVA’s program pay in-state tuition to the university, set at $9,300 per year for 2008-09.
