College Majors, Old and New – Curriculum & Innovation

At work, I often research college majors that hold promising career paths for today’s students. Usually, I find majors such as computer science, cybersecurity, and nursing.

Imagine my surprise when this year, I found a whole new group of majors offered by colleges and universities worried about declining enrollment. The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) provided the desperate details of colleges and universities with strained finances and declining student populations offering a whopping 41,446 new degree or certificate programs since 2012.

College Majors New

You can get a minor in hip-hop studies from Columbia College; competitive video gaming from Emerson College, or a degree in social justice from Rutgers. Penn State’s World Campus offers degrees in turf grass science and management.

Not to your liking?

Try Elizabethtown College master’s degree in peace education, Goddard College’s concentration in embodiment studies (honoring the intelligence of the body and its capacity for insight and liberation with respect to lived bodies, social bodies, and the living earth), or a bachelor’s degree in adventure education from Plymouth State University with classes in paddling, rock climbing, and mountaineering.

Wait, there’s more…

Central Michigan University has launched a certificate program in beer fermentation, Dakota County Technical College a certificate program in brewing and beer steward technology, Ferris State University an associate degree in professional brew management, and Lake Michigan College an associate degree in wine and viticulture technology.

Paging Professor Daniels…Professor Jack Daniels.

College Majors Old

Back in the real world, I am still working on this year’s list of college majors. It is shaping up with health and medical preparatory programs, construction engineering management, and pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, and administration. Hopefully, most colleges plan and deploy new majors by considering career projections, economic indicators, and working with industry professionals.

While doing the research for this post, I can’t say I was surprised, but I found a degree program in Puppet Arts at the University of Connecticut. Who are the industry professionals for that program? Madame, Charlie McCarthy, and King Friday?

College Majors Cool

In the meantime, I am looking at the Bachelor of Arts in Pop Culture from Bowling Green State University. According to the Fall 2020 Undergraduate Catalog, the popular culture major focuses on the impact various aspects of popular culture (such as television, movies, rock music, popular books and magazines, sports, holidays, festivals, and folklore) have on our culture and how they reflect the values of our society.