Dive Brief

Penn State looks to cut 47 undergraduate degrees

The public institution is moving to eliminate programs with low enrollment and fading student demand after a multiyear review of its offerings.

Published Oct. 13, 2026,

By Ben Unglesbee, Senior Reporter

Dive Brief:

• Pennsylvania State University administrators issued a final proposal Monday to eliminate 47 undergraduate programs after a multi-year academic review of the public institution’s 403 associate and bachelor’s degrees. 
  
• Collectively, those programs enroll about 1.1% of the university’s roughly 68,000 undergraduate students, according to a Penn State news release. Nine of the programs have no students. 
  
• The final list goes next to Penn State’s Faculty Senate for review before final sign-off by the university’s provost. The university said it will develop teach-out plans for specific programs “over the coming semesters.” 

Dive Insight:

The university cited low student demand among other factors for putting the 47 programs on the chopping block. 

The final list, according to Penn State, incorporated feedback from university officials, including in the provost and planning offices, as well as deans, chancellors, faculty, staff, students and the consultancy Hanover Research. 

Read more: Penn State looks to cut 47 undergraduate degrees – Higher Ed Dive

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