The Charlotte campus of Johnson & Wales University is offering a three-year hospitality management degree aimed at students eager to start their careers while spending less on schooling.
Starting in the fall of 2026, the bachelor’s degree program in hospitality management will require students to earn 90 credit hours of study. That breaks more than a century of practice by higher education accreditors requiring a minimum of 120 credit hours of study, Johnson & Wales said in a statement today.
Johnson & Wales is trying to entice more students to study on its Charlotte campus, with enrollment totaling about 1,270 this fall. Like other private colleges, it’s battling budgetary pressures amid shrinking enrollment in North Carolina and Providence, Rhode Island, by cutting 5% of faculty and staff this past May.
JWU Charlotte is taking applications for the three-year program. Shaving a year from the major makes the Charlotte campus the first higher education institution in the southeastern U.S. to offer “an in-person, three-year bachelor’s degree paired with a full residential experience,” the statement said.
Starting this academic year, the Providence campus began offering a three-year degree in several majors, the first such program in the nation.
“This initiative reflects Johnson & Wales University’s ongoing efforts to adapt to the evolving landscape of higher education,” Charlotte campus President Richard Mathieu said in the statement. He added, “We’re not only meeting the evolving needs of our students but also driving workforce development in tourism and hospitality — dynamic, fast-growing industries that are shaping the economic future of the Southeast.”
The program aims to deliver “a rigorous and comprehensive education in three years” by counting workplace experiences during the academic year and summers toward degree requirements. Students will take fewer or no elective classes, allowing them to focus on their major course of study.
Students in the three-year program will be required to earn the same core general education foundation credits as the current four-year bachelor’s degree and the same major study classes. They will carry a regular semester load of classes during the academic year, instead of taking classes year-round or bringing credits from high school to earn accelerated degrees.
In June, the North Carolina Board of Governors approved JWU Charlotte to offer the hospitality management 90-credit, three-year degree program under the university’s current accreditation.
