Need for a New Master Plan - Once Again

Gov. Pat Brown receives Master Plan
from UC President Clark Kerr

From time to time, we point to the fact that the old Master Plan of 1960, which provided for a division of labor between UC, CSU, and the community colleges is indeed old. In fact, it expired in 1975, although people keep referring to it. The impetus behind the old plan was that the three segments were operating independently and overlapping their functions.

As the plan has decayed, community colleges keep coming up with BAs and CSU with PhDs. Now maybe that's all fine. But no one has looked at public higher ed recently in California to see if some revision of the old Master Plan is needed.

Inside Higher Ed recently noted yet another community college bachelor's degree may be in the works:

California community colleges could begin offering bachelor’s degree programs in nursing under a new pilot program proposed in a recent state Senate bill. Community college leaders are celebrating the bill as a way to expand access to more affordable bachelor of science in nursing (B.S.N.) programs and fill critical nursing shortages in the state. California State University officials, however, have expressed concerns that new programs will cause undue competition.

Senate Bill 895, authored by state senator Richard D. Roth, would allow the chancellor of the community college system to choose up to 15 community college districts that already provide nursing associate degrees to offer B.S.N. programs.* These new programs would be limited in size at up to a quarter of colleges’ nursing associate degree enrollments or 35 students, whichever is greater...

Full story at https://www.insidehighered.com/news/institutions/community-colleges/2024/02/09/bill-raises-hopes-bsn-programs-two-year-colleges.

So, again, we point to the need for a new Master Plan.

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*The bill is at:

https://legiscan.com/CA/text/SB895/id/2868455.