College Without a Campus

The pitch sounds like something from a matchbook cover: "Earn a degree at home in your spare time." The degree, however, is perfectly valid. The institution making the offer, which will take effect next winter, is no instant-diploma mill but the prestigious State University of New York.

Two new programs, announced last week by the university and the New York State Board of Regents, are designed to allow students with high school diplomas to get a college degree without ever going to a campus for more than placement or counseling. Initially, at least 500 students will be enrolled in a new S.U.N.Y. "nonresidential college" with administrative headquarters in the Albany area. Paying fees of slightly less than $20 per credit hour, they will be allowed to take courses at any of the university's 70 campuses across the state. If they prefer, they will do some or all of their work independently at home with mail correspondence courses, TV lectures and cassettes. To keep the program from turning into what one educator calls a way "to beat the draft by watching TV," students will have to appear at designated "learning centers" for tutoring sessions with faculty mentors--as often as once a month for beginners, perhaps no more than once a year for advanced scholars. Another program will grant degrees to students who learn completely on their own through reading, practical experience or company training. By passing a new set of college equivalency exams at a time of their own choosing, they will be able to qualify for either a two-year A.A. (Associate in Arts) degree or a four-year B.A., in theory without once seeing a teacher.

Successful Experience. Although a departure from the traditional notion that students need affiliation with a specific campus, S.U.N.Y.'s program is a logical extension of the various independent study programs that have been set up recently at many American colleges (TIME, Jan. 18). The planners were encouraged by the success of the armed forces correspondence courses, which are run in cooperation with scores of U.S. universities. Specifically, S.U.N.Y. and officials of the Ford Foundation and Carnegie Corporation, which are financing the projects' first years with $1,800,000 of planning money, point to the successful experience of the University of London. Since 1858, it has given a degree to anyone who can pass its stiff exams, whether or not the student has been in residency or attended classes.

Off-campus study, S.U.N.Y. believes, should provide the advantages of higher learning to countless adults who might otherwise have no chance for a degree. These might include, for example, homebound housewives, deskbound businessmen and thousands of students too poor to afford living on campus. More important, perhaps, the newest "university without walls" will allow S.U.N.Y. to absorb many more students without erecting and maintaining expensive physical facilities. By 1974, the university expects 10,000 students in its un-campused college. By then, planners estimate that economies made possible by the new program should reduce the total yearly cost of educating an off-campus student by half, from $2,300 to $1,150.

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