Last year, two BYU schools became the first universities to remove all electives from certain bachelor’s degrees—students can now graduate in three years instead of four, paying much less for tuition and only taking classes relevant to their degrees.

“We have found a way to reduce the bachelor degree from 120 credits to just 90 credits without losing key outcomes,” Dr. J.D. Griffith, VP of administration at BYU-Pathway Worldwide, said in a LinkedIn post. “When a student is struggling to eat or acquiring huge financial loans, universities shouldn’t be requiring them to take the equivalent of a year’s worth of ‘elective’ credits.”

BYU is followed by a dozen colleges and universities hoping to do the same—among them Georgetown University, Portland State University and Utica University. As our degrees get more expensive, these universities advocate making education solely vocational—relevant to how a student will make money after college. 

Why should students spend a year studying art, philosophy and religion when they are getting a degree in computer science?

Maybe it’s time to remove the “liberal arts” from our “liberal arts” degrees.

Where it all began

The liberal arts education is an ideal from Greek antiquity—when philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and Epicurus valued the “quadrium” (the scientific arts including arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy) and the “trivium” (the humanities including grammar, logic and rhetoric) as essential to a well-rounded person capable of contributing to society, voting on world leaders, presiding over a jury and participating in military service. 

To create such an enlightened citizenry, Epicurus believed education should be accessible to all. He intentionally established his garden of learning just down the street from Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Stoa with the goal of creating a place where all humans could learn, not just the elite. Women and enslaved people frequented the garden and engaged in debate, logic and rhetoric with the rest. 

In the millennia since, we have kept the liberal arts but didn’t keep it accessible to all. Instead, we enshrined it in an institution that has become exceedingly expensive and often financially ruinous to students who won’t improve their income potential as a result. What is the point of an expensive degree if it does not improve someone’s vocational status enough that the tuition can be afforded by their new wages?

“What do you do when 34 percent of your students sometimes struggle to find at least two meals a day?” Griffith asks. “You find a way to get them to a bachelor’s degree quicker.”

And you certainly don’t charge them $5,000 for art classes. 

World-class education available worldwide

Unlike other universities vying for a three-year degree, BYU-Idaho and Ensign College offer online, asynchronous degrees through BYU-Pathway, making their degrees available worldwide. Griffith thinks that’s why they were the first to be approved by the accrediting authority. As of 2023, the schools are attended by 67,000 students living in 180 countries. About 20,000 students live in Africa.

“When you’re telling a student from Africa, who is struggling to find two meals a day, where unemployment rates are through the roof, and they’re doing everything they can just to subsist in life, to ‘take any class you want, just for the fun of it.’ That’s not a good answer. It was those African students who really got our attention and had us asking: ‘Why are we making these students take 30 elective credits?’”

The schools do a lot to remove boundaries to education. Not only are classes asynchronous so students can study on their own time, but tuition is priced according to a country’s economic status—BYU-Idaho students pay $194 per credit hour on campus, domestic students pay $81 online and international students pay $14 on average. All textbooks are e-books, and Griffith says they are working to eliminate that expense, too, now that so much information is free and readily available online.

Students can also now earn certificates, associate degrees and bachelor’s degrees along the way so that, even if they leave school after a year, they are already credentialed in something that might improve their career and income potential. Griffith calls them “stackable degrees.”

“Most universities, you declare your bachelor’s degree, and then what happens when life gets in the way or you follow a spouse or for whatever reason you need to leave college? You come away with just abundant hours and nothing to show for it,” Griffith says. “In many of these countries, a certificate from a U.S. school might be all they need to gain better employment and to double or triple their income. Some students can stop at that.”

And the schools partner with the social-impact staffing agency Bloom to ensure students have access to remote work upon graduating. 

The benefits of removing electives from higher education

Considering their cost, it seems equitable for schools to provide an increase in earning potential. That doesn’t mean artistic pursuits aren’t valuable. I’m with those ancient philosophers—they are vital! But the cost per credit hour doesn’t justify their inclusion in the modern university system, especially if the learning could be more affordably achieved elsewhere. If it is a well-rounded person we seek, perhaps they would better become so if they were financially supported enough to pursue their intellectual curiosities. 

Currently, these paths lie abundant and free on the internet, where like-minded communities gather around Substack newsletters, YouTube channels, Discord chat servers, online Zoom courses or even Wikipedia rabbit holes to learn the things they are most interested in. Epicurus himself was self-taught, and his students gathered in the garden by their own intellectual curiosities. Those avenues are more widely available than even Epicurus’ garden once was. 

BYU-Pathway shares this ideal, and the organization is subsidized in its mission by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

“We can’t build more campuses, and yet we have covenant-keeping members of the church all over the world. Why can’t they get a BYU education? Simply because they were born in Albania should not preclude them from getting a BYU education,” Griffith says. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints feels that all faithful, covenant-keeping members of the church should have access to a church-based education regardless of their circumstances.”

Starting in April 2024, BYU-Idaho students enrolled through BYU-Pathway will be able to receive a three-year bachelor’s degree online in applied business management, software development, applied health, professional studies, or family and human services. Ensign College students enrolling through BYU-Pathway will be able to receive three-year degrees online in information technology or communications.

These three-year degrees aren’t eligible for financial aid, but Griffith says that’s a good thing. It is financial aid that has driven education costs so high. 

“Because of federal financial aid, what is the motivation for universities to keep costs low? I actually don’t know if there ‘is’ any motivation to keep costs low,” he says. 

Griffith thinks organizations around the world could stand to benefit from the same model: Education available at costs anyone can afford, delivered asynchronously online so that anyone can participate, and in less time to suit their lives. In this, BYU-Pathway is not just pioneering the future of education, but also heralding a return to the past: a modern Epicurean garden available to everyone and the creation of a wise and enlightened global citizenry—not just at a handful of elite universities. 

We can only hope schools around the world do the same.