Sandra Steele, Educational Consultant

Florida Considers Degree Quotas

By Kimberly Miller
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 22, 2005

TALLAHASSEE — The state board that oversees Florida's 11 public universities might start telling you what your child should study in college.

A committee of the Board of Governors recommended Thursday that universities churn out a specific number of graduates in nine "high-need" areas — engineering, health, mechanical science, education, natural science and technology, computer science, design and construction, medical science, and electronic media — and "high-wage careers."

That would limit available seats in other popular programs such as English, business and fine arts, university leaders said, and it would represent a philosophical shift in how higher education has been provided for decades.

The full board would have to give final blessing to the plan, which originally specified that 50 percent of majors must be in critical areas by the 2012-2013 school year. No approval date has been set.

Meeting such a deadline would require asking some current students to change majors and telling potential students unwilling to switch their fields to reconsider their plans or look to private or out-of-state schools.

"I'm very concerned that we are not letting the marketplace sort these things out," Florida State University Provost Larry Abele said. "It's a wonderful thing we are trying to do to address the state's needs, but we are going against the tide of student interest."

The board's strategic planning committee had outlined its wish to have 50 percent of all degrees awarded in critical areas as part of a detailed plan for Florida's universities.

That 50 percent figure was changed Thursday to specific numbers for each program after university leaders said using a percentage was too arbitrary.

They want to be able to look at real workforce needs and use those to set goals.

The committee did not set those numbers Thursday, but a report commissioned to implement the plan said increasing critical areas by 50 percent would require adding 100,000 students to the system by 2012-2013. The report does not specify the cost.

Board Chairwoman Carolyn Roberts said letting the free marketplace determine which degrees students obtain is important, but she emphasized that intervention is necessary even if it is unpopular with the universities.

Administrators say it will be unpopular with parents, too. A letter from University of West Florida President John Cavanaugh, chairman of the State University Presidents Association, warns that requiring a certain number of degrees in some areas would require caps on degrees in English, fine arts, business, social science, human services, social work and criminology.

University of Central Florida President John Hitt said: "It's all well and good when it's somebody else's kid that can't go to art school, but by God, when my child wants to study art, the university system better provide an art degree. How do we convince kids, 'No, you really don't want to study communications; you really don't want to study English'?"

Administrators estimate that about 40 percent of degrees statewide are in critical-need areas, but the figures vary by school. FSU's Abele said about 30 percent of his graduates are in those areas.

"We are a liberal-arts school," Abele said. "We have a huge and respected music program."

Hitt and other university leaders argued that schools would need to offer incentives for students to choose high-need majors. More money would be needed from lawmakers to pay for higher-cost technical degrees.

"We absolutely agree we need to work toward meeting the state's needs," Cavanaugh said. "The issue is, how do we want to get there and declare success?"