What do influencing, AI and health sciences have in common? They’re all degree programs colleges have launched in the last few years to attract students looking for a new career path. The Indicator explores how colleges are rethinking degree programs for a changing job market.
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STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Colleges are adding some new majors to attract new students and maybe adapt to a changing job market. Here are our colleagues, Wailin Wong and Ricky Mulvey at the Indicator from Planet Money.
WAILIN WONG, BYLINE: Eddie Hernandez is a professor in human anatomy and physiology at UT San Antonio. His students call him Dr. H, so we will, too. Dr. H said conversations about a new health sciences degree program started a few years ago.
EDDIE HERNANDEZ: We have a fantastic biology degree, but it seemed a little broad, and it also seemed like it didn’t reflect our specific population of students.
RICKEY MULVEY, BYLINE: Students like Case Brown (ph). A few months ago, Dr. H told Case, guess what? The college has this new major. It checks off all the pre-reqs that you need for medical school. Plus, you’ll get more tailored courses that will prepare you for an actual career as a doctor.
CASE BROWN: Dr. H came to me like, hey, Case, this is new. This is how it’d benefit you. I was like, cool, sign me up.
MULVEY: Dr. H says by his last count, there are around 500 undergraduates in the current cohort.
WONG: And he says that if these future doctors and physicians assistants stay in Texas to build their careers, that will be another win for the program.
MULVEY: And sustainable careers are the ultimate goal of these new degrees. That puts programs without a clear pathway to a job on the chopping block.
WONG: The last decade or so has already been hard for the liberal arts in the U.S. The number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in humanities is down 30% since 2012. That’s according to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
MULVEY: Jason Fox is the chief academic officer at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. Jason’s college has art right there in its name, and yet it still has to make tough calls about what programs to keep. This year, the college stopped accepting new enrollees in sculpture. Jason says the decisions come down to jobs and earnings potential.
JASON FOX: These are economic decisions, as much as they were – either A, we weren’t delivering on the promise, or B, there was no promise to deliver on because there was no market out there for it.
WONG: On the flip side, Jason and other administrators at SCAD realized a few years ago that there would be a huge market for college graduates with training in AI.
MULVEY: Jason started talking to people at both SCAD and in industries like film and fashion.
WONG: So in September of 2025, SCAD launched a new major in applied AI. Nvidia came on board as a corporate partner.
MULVEY: The school says the program should equip students for careers in designing AI products and machines. Jason says the No. 1 metric that the college looks at is the employment rate of graduates, and it’s hard to justify programs that don’t lead to sustainable careers.
FOX: If you’re offering generalized degrees, especially in a specialty university like ours, it begs the question – OK, what am I going to do next? And at the undergraduate level, I don’t think education consumers today are comfortable with that.
MULVEY: Education consumers. Now, that’s an interesting term. But it makes sense given the escalating cost of higher education. Students and their families want a monetary return on investment, and SCAD isn’t alone in adding AI to its roster of degrees. There are around 80 AI majors being offered in the U.S. right now, according to a tracker from Northeastern University.
WONG: But all is not lost for the liberal arts. UCLA has a new Department of Digital Humanities. The school says students will use digital tools to explore what it means to be human.
MULVEY: Ricky Mulvey.
WONG: Wailin Wong, NPR News.
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