I Am Retiring. Can the Term “Noncredit” Retire Too?

Higher education evolved into two siloed sides: credit and noncredit. However, this differentiation has resulted in unequal treatment that has real consequences for learners seeking shorter, bite-sized learning for professional advancement.

“So difficult it is to show the various meanings and imperfections of words when we have nothing else but words to do it with.”—John Locke 

I am retiring in June 2026, and I truly wish the term “noncredit” would retire along with me. Noncredit education at higher educational institutions has long been, at best, adjacent and possibly complementary to traditional credit academic programs and, at worst, an afterthought for college outreach departments, often referred to internally as “the other side of the house.” I’m guessing this description points to the backside of the house. In other words, academic students are often asked to walk through the front door of colleges and universities, and noncredit students are told to walk through the back door.   

This unequal treatment of learners—a system that has created the haves and the have-nots—does not allow open-access colleges and universities to clearly and fairly claim that we are meeting our stated missions. In fact, Richard Voorhees and John Milam even described noncredit programs as “the hidden college” in their 2005 study about noncredit programs in the U.S. Indeed, these programs and their learners remain hidden, and the lack of visibility for these learners is detrimental to the mission and future of colleges and universities.   

Institutions have hidden these programs so effectively that, in most cases, noncredit learners are not provided with or eligible for support services such as tutoring, mental health, advising, student code of conduct and student life. Certainly they’re not currently eligible for financial aid, and while Workforce Pell was included in this past summer’s federal budget, the parameters proposed utilize a credit-like framework to ensure program eligibility. Again, this inequitable treatment of an ever-growing learner population who will likely make up the highest percentage of higher education enrollment in the next decade is unacceptable. 

I simply cannot use the term “noncredit” any longer, given its deficit-framing and unintentional implications for learners. I use the term “professional credit” when referring to learners who are not taking traditional academic credit programs but seeking shorter-term, high-value and high-quality skills-based training and education. The term “professional credit” accurately describes learners seeking to improve their professional skills and education, and progress in their career fields. 

My interest in lifting up professional credit students in no way indicates that I don’t recognize the need for traditional credit academic programs. The U.S. higher education system is currently and almost entirely scaffolded around the Carnegie Unit and federal financial aid, but I’m not arguing these programs are unnecessary, nor am I arguing against the purpose of the Carnegie Unit, which was established to provide standardization to instruction. It’s simply well past time to move beyond this measurement and its definition. 

There are numerous barriers in really rethinking the credit hour and higher education’s relationship to it, including reliable and accessible data about professional credit programs, quality assurance of professional credit programs, and learning and workplace outcomes for learners in professional credit programs. Many of these challenges are outlined in two articles published in 2025: “A Global Review of Non-Degree Credential Quality Frameworks: Matching Aspirations to Available Data” by Kyle Albert and Thomas Weko, and “Workforce Pell for Community College Noncredit Education: How Well-Positioned Is the State Noncredit Data Infrastructure?” by Mark M. D’Amico and Michelle van Noy. Additionally, institutions will have to reprioritize resources to best serve all students, in a model such as Clark State has launched entitled One Front Door.   

The One Front Door model seeks to create one seamless experience and supportive service access for all learners, regardless of enrollment status, truly centering student intent at the heart of the institution. By creating an environment in which professional and academic credit students learn, receive support and thrive together, colleges and universities will operationalize their emphasis on inclusivity and accessibility.  

Individuals who announce their retirements often have a clock counting down the days, hours and even minutes until their retirement. Today, let’s start the countdown clock for retiring the term “noncredit.”