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My friend Josh is 40 years old and unemployed. I might suggest that he goes back to school, to get a bachelor's degree. I might like to suggest that he apply to Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), since it's a good school which is reasonably close to him. Unfortunately, many programs there only accept full-time students. If you don't graduate within a set time limit (usually eight years), you might possibly get kicked out of the school. Because of this I think of suggesting other schools that are otherwise not as good a fit.

My question

Why do some schools not allow part-time students in some programs? Is it because they're worried that a program could close down sometime in the future?

I admit that it would be slow and expensive to close down a part-time program in the usual way. But, if that's the concern, perhaps the school could give all new applicants some warning like this: "We do accept part-time students. But part-time programs may close down unexpectedly and without much warning. If this happens, you may need to find some other school to transfer to."

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    Undergraduate admissions are off topic here too.
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented May 2 at 22:43
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    This is like asking why don’t all restaurants serve burgers and fries. Different institutions have different goals.
    – Jon Custer
    Commented May 2 at 22:59
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    @AzorAhai-him-: I'm not 100% sure that this is really an admissions question.
    – unforgettableidSupportsMonica
    Commented May 2 at 23:11
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    The page you linked to says that part-time students generally have 14 years to complete a full undergraduate degree. If a degree has a lot of course sequences (2 or more courses that must be taken in order) or a lot of interlinked dependencies, that could make it very difficult to accomplish in part-time status.
    – mkennedy
    Commented May 4 at 14:05

1 Answer 1

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A good part time program is more than just the full time program with some changes to the rules to allow part time students to take longer. A full time student can be expected to available for class any reasonable hour in the week. For part time students that is typically not the case, leading to more evening classes and a larger online component. Also exercises, exams, and the like often need to be redesigned to accommodate the needs of part time students. So there are costs to offering a good part time program, and whenever there are costs, there is a trade off to be made.

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