{"id":3910,"date":"2026-03-18T11:34:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/?p=3910"},"modified":"2026-03-18T16:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T23:46:18","slug":"the-three-year-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/the-three-year-option\/","title":{"rendered":"The Three-Year Option"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In 2009, Robert Zemsky, a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania, proposed a radical idea: a three-year college degree, which, he argued, would serve as a catalyst for fundamental change in higher education. \u201cIt\u2019s time to look for something that will really make us rethink everything instead of just rethinking the things along the perimeter,\u201d he\u00a0told\u00a0<em>Newsweek<\/em>. The idea barely registered. Higher education, long accustomed to the comfortable architecture of 120 credits spread across four years, was not ready to question itself. Accrediting agencies were opposed. Zemsky pressed on anyway, arguing that only a genuine \u201cdislodging event\u201d would force the academy to question its assumptions all at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aacu.org\/liberaleducation\/articles\/the-three-year-option\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read more on AAC&amp;U&#8230;<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-fsb-flexible-spacer fsb-flexible-spacer\"><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--lg\" style=\"height:100px\"><\/div><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--md\" style=\"height:100px\"><\/div><div class=\"fsb-flexible-spacer__device fsb-flexible-spacer__device--sm\" style=\"height:100px\"><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2009, Robert Zemsky, a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania, proposed a radical idea: a three-year college &#8230; <a title=\"The Three-Year Option\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/the-three-year-option\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about The Three-Year Option\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3911,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ghostkit_customizer_options":"","ghostkit_custom_css":"","ghostkit_custom_js_head":"","ghostkit_custom_js_foot":"","ghostkit_typography":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[89],"client_controls":[],"class_list":["post-3910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","tag-postsecondary-innovation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Three-Year Option - Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.carnegiefoundation.org\/the-three-year-option\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Three-Year Option - Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 2009, Robert Zemsky, a professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania, proposed a radical idea: a three-year college ... 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