Iowa universities reviewing low-enrollment majors, could close or merge programs

IOWA CITY — The University of Iowa is reviewing undergraduate majors with low enrollment — like African American studies and gender, women’s and sexuality studies — after the Board of Regents last year mandated a comprehensive study of how well campus programs are meeting workforce needs and student demands.

“This is the right time to take a careful look at these programs,” UI Executive Vice President and Provost Kevin Kregel said, acknowledging that while enrollment might be low in some majors, “We are seeing record levels of student interest at Iowa, and it’s important that we use our administrative and instructional resources where they will have the greatest impact.”

The University of Northern Iowa also is working on an “enrollment optimization process,” and Iowa State University plans to begin its low-enrollment-program review soon after former regents President Sherry Bates during the last Legislative session in February 2025 cited several bills aimed at compelling the universities to review how well their programming meets Iowa’s workforce needs.

“We do not need to wait for a bill,” Bates said at the time, directing the board office and universities to return with a “full and complete report” by November.

That new “workforce alignment review” report — highlighting across Iowa’s three public universities 42 undergraduate programs with 25 or fewer students and 63 graduate programs with 10 or fewer students — came with a list of recommendations, including identifying programs that should be closed or reorganized.

In response, the University of Iowa this month announced it’s reviewing low-enrollment programs to ensure they align with student demand, workforce needs, and the UI mission. The review will use recent data “to examine enrollment history and trends for the undergraduate programs identified in the report.”

The 13 undergraduate low-enrollment programs under the UI microscope include African American studies, which has five students who’ve declared it as their primary major and six who claim it as their second or third; gender, women’s and sexuality studies, with 12 primary majors and 11 secondary majors; and religious studies, with five primary majors and 11 secondary majors.

For comparison, UI in the fall reported 1,094 psychology majors, 1,510 pre-business majors, 827 biology majors and 809 students majoring in exercise science.

‘Declining student enrollment’

Although a comprehensive review of low-enrollment programs and majors is not common across the Board of Regents system, occasional program closure due to low enrollment is — with each university regularly requesting board permission to terminate a program due to lack of interest.

In November, for example, UNI requested board permission to terminate its bachelor’s in anthropology due to “declining student enrollment and loss of faculty.”

“Over the past five years, we have eliminated around a dozen programs in areas such as global studies, humanities and other disciplines,” UNI spokesman Pete Moris said, highlighting a campuswide evaluation of academic offerings in relation to workforce needs that he said began years ago — before the recent workforce alignment review.

“Meanwhile programs such as nursing, health and applied engineering have evolved out of this evaluation,” Moris said. “In other instances, UNI has changed our mode of instruction to make programs more accessible. Our hybrid accounting program in Des Moines is a good example.”

In December 2024, the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences proposed a new School of Social and Cultural Analysis — along with a bachelor’s in social and cultural analysis — that would have collapsed or closed several low-enrollment programs like American studies and gender, women’s and sexuality studies, along with majors like social justice and American studies.

But the Board of Regents rejected the proposed new school after Republican lawmakers aired concerns it would peddle “ideological agendas” and instead passed a bill creating a new Center for Intellectual Freedom based at the University of Iowa.

With that center up and running — reporting to the Board of Regents and governed by an advisory council stacked with conservative-leaning faculty from universities coast-to-coast — lawmakers this session have turned their focus to what’s being taught in the classroom and what type of graduates the universities are producing.

One relevant bill — Senate File 2063 — would require the board to review all undergraduate general education requirements and core curricula “to remove any required courses or course requirements that include diversity, equity, inclusion, and critical race theory-related content.”

Another, with versions in both the Senate and House, would require students to complete courses on American history and civil government before graduation.

“We are going to be prioritizing history and civics education in the State of Iowa,” Rep. Taylor Collins, R-Mediapolis, said earlier this month when discussing the House proposal. “And quite frankly, I'm embarrassed at the state of our current liberal arts. We're going to return our core curriculum to what a true liberal arts education is meant to be, and the fact that the General Assembly has to address this is embarrassing.”

  Buy Photo

Return on investment

In addressing lawmaker questions over core curriculum and whether university degrees are meeting student demand and workforce need, the recent regent workforce alignment review looked not just at student enrollment but into the “return on investment” for specific bachelor’s degrees.

It used a “break-even threshold” calculation to evaluate the ROI that involved a student’s loan payment and postgraduation earnings; how many years it takes to break even; and how that compares with high school graduates who don’t earn a bachelor’s degree.

For graduate-degree ROI, the calculation considers the number of years needed after graduation to earn more than an average bachelor’s degree recipient.

A UI student who earns a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, for example, averages year-one earnings of $69,416 — which is enough to pass the breakeven threshold of $45,917 in that first year. By year 10, that bachelor’s degree student is expected to be making an average of $113,620 annually — while a doctorate student is expected to be earning an average of $139,112 after a decade.

A Board of Regents interactive dashboard currently allows students and families to determine median income one, five, and 10 years after graduation; percent spent on debt at each of those points; and average federal student loan debt — depending on major and graduation cohort.

The first recommendation in the new workforce alignment review is to embed an ROI calculation into the existing dashboard.

“As part of this process, review which ROI/breakeven calculation is the best fit for Iowa regent universities,” according to the report’s recommendations.

Other recommendations include:

“The social impact of some careers is of high importance in assessing ROI, but it is hard to quantify in financial terms,” according to the report. “Sectors such as health care, social services, teaching and public administration have direct impact on the lives of all Iowans and are vital to the health of all communities, but wages associated with careers in these fields do not necessarily reflect the value of their contributions.”

‘Academic programs evolve’

Although low enrollment is key in determining possible program closures or mergers, the report advised consideration of several other factors like:

“While no program could be evaluated using all of these metrics, a comprehensive program evaluation will include many of them,” according to the report. “Using a combination of metrics may provide a more nuanced analysis of which program enrollments are at a healthy minimum, within a watch zone, or at risk.”

Based on the review findings, UI administrators plan to recommend closing programs that don’t “demonstrate long-term viability or sufficient student demand.”

Since 2015, the university has closed 37 programs — with board approval — “often as part of reorganization efforts intended to improve academic alignment and efficiency.”

“Academic programs evolve over time, and this process helps make sure they are keeping pace with student interest,” Kregel said. “By regularly assessing our offerings, we can better support students’ goals and the academic areas where they are choosing to invest their time.”

With Iowa State about to launch its low-enrollment-program review, Senior Vice President and Provost Jason Keith earlier this week offered faculty an update outlining plans for a review aimed at one of several outcomes: additional time to grow enrollment, exemptions for critical workforce programs, program consolidation, or program suspension or closure.

At UNI, several program reorganizations have either occurred or are planned — including a merger of political science and criminology, according to Moris.

“Merging history, philosophy and world religions is also being proposed,” he said, noting, “This is ongoing work that has taken place for many years. Fortunately, we are seeing positive results in many areas due to this evolution.”

UNI, for example, is reporting a 30-percent increase in net mechanical engineering technology and learned that its geography students are in demand and have a high return on investment post-graduation.

With UNI grads working in agriculture-related geographic information system jobs — including drone application of seeds and fertilizer — and government planning roles like infrastructure mapping, Moris said, “We anticipate seeking approval for an online geography program at some point.”

  Buy Photo

Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette.

Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com