The University of Northern Iowa has announced it will lower the current number of credit hours required to earn a bachelor’s degree to conserve money and help UNI students graduate within four years.

But ISU officials said there are no current plans for similar changes in Ames.

The proposal to lower the minimum graduation requirement for a bachelor of arts degree from 124 credit hours to 120 credit hours was approved by the UNI Faculty Senate on April 22. The formal process took only a few weeks.

“Responses have been positive from students and most faculty,” said UNI Provost Aaron Podolefsky. “Indeed, some faculty think we should have gone farther in additional changes that assist students to graduate in a timely fashion.”

Like many changes within any university, the new credit requirement will come into effect with the new catalogue in August.

“I heard about the new credit requirements this past weekend through other students, so I don’t think there is much awareness of this situation throughout the student body,” said Elizabeth Mangaudis, freshman in elementary education at the University of Northern Iowa.

“From what I understand they are cutting credits for certain majors only,” she said.

Some students, those whose programs of study require fewer than 120 credit hours, will be able to graduate with fewer credits if they carefully plan their progress toward the degree, Podolefsky said.

“Keep in mind that often the major, minor, general education – what we call the `core’ – and required electives may total more than the minimum. Students in those programs will not be affected by this particular action,” Podolefsky said.

Those at the University of Northern Iowa can expect to see this alteration in the near future. Issues such as this have been brought up at Iowa State as well.

“These matters are discussed at the college level at ISU. The LAS college has talked about this as a budget issue,” said Howard Shapiro, vice provost for Iowa State.

“I know that a few years ago, engineering took an effort to reduce its curriculum to a true `four year’ curriculum. This was motivated by a sort of truth-in-advertising issue. The curricula averaged over 130 credits, and very few students could actually graduate in four years. Now, engineering curricula are in the mid to high 120s, and they are more do-able in four years,” Shapiro said.

Another aspect of the four-year graduation issue Shapiro mentioned is that students are encouraged to participate in study abroad, co-ops and internships, which may cause their education to take longer.

“However, those are important educational experiences, and they can be very important to what students learn in college that can’t be taught in the classroom,” he said.