Changes have come to the Illinois Institute of Technology and will continue to roll out as the next few terms progress. Due to a myriad of factors, although mostly funding issues, Illinois Tech has some big restructuring coming up. Degrees and academic opportunities are also on shuffle.
Illinois Tech’s current enrollment trajectory is lower than pre-COVID; this is largely due to international student enrollment dropping as of recently. International students are a significant student body within Illinois Tech, including the graduate body, which pays higher tuition (Illinois Tech supplies different rates of tuition stipends for students, and graduates notably have a significantly lower stipend and pay a grander total of tuition). Due to recent federal policies concerning visas and research travel, international enrollment at Illinois Tech has dipped, leaving a large hole in the university’s finances. This year’s finances were already running low, and next year’s prospects aren’t looking much better. Money is getting tight at Illinois Tech, and so the university has acted.
Illinois Tech’s Board of Trustees will meet during the week of Commencement to discuss topics relating to the direction of the university, and college consolidation is on the agenda.
Illinois Tech President Raj Echambadi, on Thursday, April 23, gave a “town hall” to faculty and staff concerning a college merger. The proposed plan would merge Illinois Tech’s seven different colleges into three colleges. Programs in engineering, computing, health tech, and life sciences will consolidate into a single college, programs in architecture and design will consolidate, and programs in business and law will consolidate, leaving three larger and more general colleges. Dissolving Illinois Tech’s academic departments is also a likely possibility.
The effects won’t go unnoticed. Seven colleges into three means seven deans into three, increasing workloads and restricting dean bandwidth. The effect is compounded if academic departments are dissolved as well, since their responsibilities would be moved to the dean level. Should the college consolidation alongside the department dissolution go through, which is likely, the effects will reach students. Centralizing administration is good for costs, but can lead to busier administrators and create more distance between students/faculty, and administrators. Instead of having department leaders alongside deans available, students will be left only with deans, who themselves will be significantly busier than before. Communication, resources, and influence will flow significantly less between students and administration. Class sizes are also slated to increase, as faculty are consolidated and moved away from administrative roles and adjunct professors become a lower priority; electives will be impacted by increased class sizes the most. Consolidation also implies fewer administrative positions open, meaning that staff at Illinois Tech are at risk.
College consolidation isn’t all bad, however. With college mergers come new possibilities, which could positively impact students more than decreased communication and efficiency. More programs belonging to colleges means students will have access to a more diverse pool of options in their academics; i.e., multi-disciplinary studies will become easier. Breaking down the “silos” between disciplines exposes students to different perspectives, fields of study, and methods of learning and application; deeper learning, enhanced creativity, problem-solving skills, and improved career opportunities are only a few of the advantages. A college merger implies that more electives and more faculty will become more accessible to students, and cross-disciplinary electives will become the norm.
If the college merger does go through, which, again, is still only a chance, the road will be bumpy at first, as faculty and staff adjust and as dean’s offices get used to the different organization and load. This will be exacerbated by the financial pressure pushing this merger forward. Things will change and evolve for the foreseeable future should this come to pass, and so all members of the university will be expected to offer some grace to the process.
Career options are also shuffling at Illinois Tech. On Friday, April 24, Provost Elizabeth Hudson released information regarding changes to the co-terminal program.
Illinois Tech has historically offered a dual degree program where students could pursue a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree over an accelerated schedule, eventually graduating with a bachelor’s and a master’s at the same time, with only an extra year of study past a bachelor’s, called the co-terminal pathway. One benefit of this program was the costs: a student pursuing a bachelor’s and a master’s, through co-terminal, could achieve both in less time and with less money, although with extra effort.
Now, Illinois Tech will transition to offering a plus-one pathway, where students will gain bachelor’s and master’s credit over four years, earn a bachelor’s degree, and then pursue a further year of study and earn the master’s degree. Notably, the plus-one pathway, while still profitable, is more expensive for students than the co-terminal.
Students and faculty are frustrated, although cost isn’t the main issue: the Provost’s message comes at a bad time. In just the recent weeks, departments have led official presentations and conversations concerning the co-terminal route, all of which have been negated. Students have spent weeks to months deliberating the co-terminal pathway, and many have discussed with faculty, administrators, friends, and their families concerning the pros and cons of the program. The portal for application to the pathway was set to open soon; now, however, everything is different. Co-terminal is no more, plus-one takes its place, and all of the year-long deliberations of students and staff have been thrown out the window, right before the portal was set to open, right at the end of the year. Trust has been broken, and conversations on query boards, online, and in-person, between students, staff, and faculty, have broken out over the timing of this message. Although the change had been in administrative discussions earlier in the year, students and faculty/staff were not notified of the change until the moment it was implemented.
One benefit of the plus-one program is that 4-year bachelor’s degree graduation numbers will improve for Illinois Tech, which was a convincing point for the decision makers. It should also be noted that this change is financially motivated as well.
Degrees at Illinois Tech have also begun to vary, including degree removals, restructured requirements, and specialized tracks. Biomedical Engineering specializations in Cell and Tissue, Medical Imaging, and a bachelor’s/master’s track in Imaging and Signals have been removed. The Molecular Biochemistry and Biophysics bachelors has been removed. A minor in Quantum Science has been approved. The Information Communication and Data Visualization has been removed, although a similar program was approved earlier this term to take its place. All of these changes have been decided within the Spring 2026 term.
Degree edits aren’t the only incoming changes to Illinois Tech’s academics. A new field of bachelor’s degrees with Artificial Intelligence specializations will begin to roll out, offering the standard degree alongside an integrated minor in artificial intelligence applications in the field of study. Accelerated 3-year bachelor’s degrees, referred to as Reduced Credit bachelor’s, are also a possibility. Reduced Credit bachelor’s can serve to bring more people, people with perhaps less time and less money, to higher education. Reduced Credit bachelor’s programs have recently been approved by the Higher Learning Commission, Illinois Tech’s accreditor.
Financial troubles have spelled a need for Illinois Tech to evolve. Administrators and governing councils over the last year have been busy at work mixing and matching solutions to solve the university’s financial problems. Whatever solutions end up actually coming through, in the end, the university is going through change, so be on alert for any upcoming opportunities (or closed doors) at Illinois Tech.