When taxpayers subsidize ill-considered degree programs

, Spencer Irvine, Leave a comment

As the John William Pope Center wrote:

“Each year, UNC officials pitch new degree programs to the system’s Board of Governors. More often than not, the programs are approved, even though a casual observer—especially a non-academic—might snicker or guffaw upon hearing some of their descriptions.”

“For instance, at NC State University, students can enroll in a Global Luxury Management program, which is part of the business school’s Master of Global Innovation Management. As I explained here, the program includes “experiential” trips—which some might call “vacations”—to high-end fashion boutiques in Europe and New York. It almost seems to be a scam to take money from gullible recent graduates who may have realized that their undergraduate degree in fashion and textile management—a common feeder degree for the GLM program—isn’t helping them find work in that field. (Although it’s not clear that the master’s program is helping them in that regard, either).”