All throughout the United States, critical industries are being hampered by worker shortages that will undoubtedly impact the economy in the long term. For example, the healthcare industry faces a “shortfall of more than 78,000 full-time registered nurses this year alone,” and multiple states are concerned they don’t have enough new teachers graduating to put a dent in the shortage they are already facing in the education field.
With that in mind, here are some of the business decisions higher education institutions are making in order to help fill those gaps.
Community colleges filling needed gaps
In Iowa, a proposed House Bill could soon allow community colleges in the state to offer bachelor’s degrees in high-demand fields. Opponents to the bill argue that private colleges won’t be able to compete with “tax-supported institutions” that offer “similar degrees at cheaper prices,” which may force some private colleges to close. The proposal caps bachelor’s tuition at community colleges at 1.5 times the tuition of other community college students. In 2023, the average in-state tuition at Iowa’s community colleges was $191.18 per credit hour, which would cap tuition at $286.77 per credit hour. For comparison, the lowest in-state tuition at Iowa’s public universities in 2023 was $338 per credit hour, and the average tuition at private colleges was $1,162 per credit hour in 2025.
Despite the opposition, one community college president emphasized why these programs were necessary to offer: “We’re not trying to come in and swoop away students from the private, four-year colleges. We’re looking at specific areas in our state that are under-resourced, that need additional individuals to be prepared for the workforce.”
Iowa isn’t novel in considering this option. There are currently 24 states where this is already a reality. For example, last year, Scottsdale Community College (SCC) in Arizona began offering its first-ever four-year degree program, a Bachelor of Business Administration in Management. The president of SCC stated that this new program is “an extension of SCC’s mission to expand access to quality education for all, especially underserved communities” and that it will allow students to “follow their passions without the heavy financial burden usually associated with obtaining a bachelor’s degree.”
As one headline noted, “Scottsdale Community College is one of nine campuses offering bachelor’s degrees in in-demand fields, at a fraction of the cost.” Those programs include early education and nursing degrees.
A quicker path to becoming educated
While community colleges are trying to get students to stay longer, four-year institutions are trying to get students out quicker in order to fill the need for workers in those industries by developing three-year programs. At least 70 institutions across the country have joined “College-in-3” which states it is a “collective of campuses engaged in conversations to design undergraduate degree options that increase student success while decreasing student costs.” The collective began in 2021 and has quickly gained traction among educators as a potential new way to “innovate and respond to societal needs.”
In the spring of 2024, Brigham Young University-Idaho and its affiliate, Ensign College, became the first colleges in the U.S. to offer accredited three-year programs after gaining approval from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities the previous fall. The seven new accredited programs sparked hope among other colleges that they may soon be able to do the same.
Recently, Mount Mary University, a private catholic school in Wisconsin, launched new reduced-credit degree options in digital marketing and cybersecurity, making it the first college in the state to allow students the option to graduate in three years instead of four. However, the path to three-year programs for Wisconsin’s public universities won’t be easy, as its Board of Regents has a policy that mandates all bachelor’s degree programs be a minimum of 120 credits.
