Youngstown Daily Legal News

Proposal meant to encourage college students to finish degree

KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: July 2, 2019

Lawmakers in the Ohio House of Representatives are deliberating a bipartisan bill that proposes an improved degree-completion rate among Ohio college and university students.

In addition to establishing a standard for general education courses, House Bill 9 would require state universities to complete a biannual review of unenrolled students who have yet to complete a bachelor's degree to determine if they are eligible for an associate degree or program certificate.

"After 23 years in the high school classroom I've had a huge amount of students who have gone to college," said Freeport Rep. Don Jones, Republican joint sponsor of the bill. "What is unfortunate from what I've witnessed and in today's society it seems to be becoming the norm for kids not to finish their degrees in four years.

"HB 9 addresses this issue in a few ways."

With established general education standards, the Department of Higher Education would initiate a general education course transfer system, allowing students to transfer those course credits from one public university to another.

Jones said students are more likely to stay on track even if they must change schools.

"Life happens and students shouldn't be penalized for what is probably a very hard decision in the first place," he added.

Another provision of HB 9 is a waiver of tuition and general fees for a final course that is necessary to complete a bachelor's degree, as long as the student meets certain eligibility criteria.

Per the bill, a student must receive such a waiver if all of the following apply to the student:

• He was enrolled full-time, as defined by the chancellor, in his final year;

• He was unable to enroll in the final course in his final year due to a lack of course availability or other circumstances beyond his control, as determined by the chancellor;

• He paid all tuition and general fees for the courses in which he enrolled in his final year at the beginning of that year; and

• He registers for the final course in the academic year immediately following his final year.

Fellow joint sponsor of the bill, Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Cleveland, recalled some of her undergraduate peers being "left behind, hindered and unable to enter into the workforce" because of such circumstances.

"Sometimes life happens and plans change," she told House members seated for the Higher Education Committee. "With these provisions HB 9 is going to be a great asset in our continual drive to make Ohio a business friendly state where we have a great, accessible, smart workforce.

Analysis provided by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission found that the bill's provisions would apply to the recent development of chancellor-approved applied bachelor's degrees - a degree based on a curriculum that incorporates theoretical and applied knowledge and skills in a specific technical field and designed for an individual with an applied science associate degree to maximize the application of technical course credits toward the bachelor's degree.

A fourth hearing of the bill had not been scheduled at time of publication.

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