With a growing number of two-year colleges beginning to offer bachelor’s degree programs, competition has increased for four-year universities.

Lone Star College submitted three bachelor’s degrees for approval by their regional accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges.

Lone Star College will learn in January 2020 if those programs in cybersecurity, nursing and energy, manufacturing & trades management are approved. If they are approved, the college will open applications for the programs in February 2020 for registration as fall 2020 classes, according to lonestar.edu.

With Lone Star College marketing their classes as being significantly cheaper than Texas A&M University, University of Texas and Sam Houston State University, it would seem to complicate the future of SHSU, especially in the case of our nursing program.

“Our nursing programs have continued to grow with the demand of health care providers seeking highly qualified nurses,” Director of the SHSU School of Nursing Denise Neill said. “We choose to focus on the quality of course work and clinical rotations that have prepared our students to test extremely well for the NCLEX, the qualifying licensure exam to become a Registered Nurse. Over the past several years, our passing rate has been increasing and the most recent Texas Board of Nursing reported rate is 95.70%.”

With a large population of SHSU students transferring in from two-year colleges, one might also wonder what impact these new programs will have on the university as a whole.

“Competition builds innovation,” Dean of the College of Health Sciences Rodney Runyan said. “As long as we continue to align the university with the needs of students, no matter if they are first generation college students, non-traditional students or parents who have decided on switching careers, success will follow.”