Colleges Innovate with New Majors to Meet Shifting Job Market Demands
As the job market evolves, colleges are introducing new degree programs in areas like influencing, AI, and health sciences to appeal to students seeking fresh career opportunities. This shift reflects a growing trend among educational institutions to align their offerings with industry needs.
Steve Inskeep from NPR discussed these changes with Wailin Wong and Ricky Mulvey from Planet Money. Wong highlights the story of Eddie Hernandez, known as Dr. H, a professor at UT San Antonio. Dr. H explains that the university’s existing biology degree was broad and didn’t cater to the specific needs of their student population, prompting discussions about a new health sciences program.
Dr. H introduced student Case Brown to the new major, which fulfills all prerequisites for medical school while offering specialized courses to prepare for a medical career. Brown recalls, “Dr. H came to me like, hey, Case, this is new. This is how it’d benefit you. I was like, cool, sign me up.” The health sciences program currently has about 500 undergraduates, according to Dr. H.
Wong notes that if graduates of this program remain in Texas to pursue their careers, it would be an added benefit. The focus on sustainable career paths is central to these new degree offerings, leading to the elimination of programs lacking clear job pathways.
Ricky Mulvey points out that the liberal arts have faced challenges, with a 30% decline in humanities degrees since 2012, based on data from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Jason Fox, the chief academic officer at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), explains that economic factors influence program decisions. This year, SCAD discontinued new enrollments in sculpture, citing a lack of market demand.
Fox states, “These are economic decisions, as much as they were – either A, we weren’t delivering on the promise, or B, there was no promise to deliver on because there was no market out there for it.” SCAD, however, identified a growing demand for AI expertise and launched a new major in applied AI in collaboration with Nvidia. This program aims to prepare students for careers in AI product and machine design.
Fox emphasizes that the key metric for evaluating programs is the employment rate of graduates, and it’s challenging to justify programs that don’t lead to viable careers. He says, “If you’re offering generalized degrees, especially in a specialty university like ours, it begs the question – OK, what am I going to do next? And at the undergraduate level, I don’t think education consumers today are comfortable with that.”
The term “education consumers” reflects the rising costs of higher education, with students and families seeking a return on investment. SCAD is not alone in adopting AI-focused degrees, as Northeastern University reports about 80 AI majors available in the U.S.
Despite these changes, the liberal arts are not being entirely overlooked. UCLA recently established a Department of Digital Humanities, where students use digital tools to explore human experiences.
