Recent Evolution in Higher Education Program Offerings

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Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. 

Notes

1 Scott Bittle et al., “Bad Bets: The High Cost of Failing Programs in Higher Education” (Burning Glass Technologies, 2020), https://www.burning-glass.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/BGT_BADBETS.pdf.

2 We did not use more recent data because some of the program changes that occurred the following year, in 2019–2020, represent CIP coding updates (from CIP 2010 to CIP 2020) and not substantive changes in program offerings. It is still possible that some program changes that appear in IPEDS data represent data clean-up rather than actual program changes. NCHEMS has had the opportunity to check IPEDS data against state-maintained program lists in two states. In both states, the IPEDS and state data were slightly different, but the differences were not generally substantive.

3 CIP = Classification of Instructional Programs, a standardized taxonomy of fields of study. See https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/.

4 In some cases, institutions offer multiple programs at the same level in the same CIP code; for example, they may offer both a transfer-oriented AA in Accounting and a workforce-oriented AAS in Accounting. We count those as a single program in this analysis.

5 Additionally, these analyses will overestimate the amount of shifting in institutions’ program arrays to the extent that institutions may be routinely changing the CIP codes their programs are reported under even when the program is substantively the same. This is possible given that differences in two programs at the six-digit level can sometimes be fine distinctions. To account for this potential source of error, NCHEMS also ran the analyses at the four-digit level, which yielded broadly similar results in terms of changes in levels and disciplines, albeit with far fewer closures and additions, owing to the fact that the four-digit level is a higher level of aggregation. We excluded programs that both opened and closed within the 5-year analysis window; if a program only lasted from 2015 to 2016, for example, it is not counted here.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Louisa Hunkerstorm

Louisa Hunkerstorm is a Senior Associate at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, a nonprofit organization located in Boulder, Colorado, that works to improve strategic decision making in postsecondary education for states and institutions.

Brian Prescott

Brian Prescott is the President of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, a nonprofit organization located in Boulder, Colorado, that works to improve strategic decision making in postsecondary education for states and institutions.