TTC eliminating 4 certificate programs

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Trident Technical College’s Area Commission voted earlier this week to eliminate four certificate programs from the college’s curriculum, effective this fall.

The eliminations are expected to have minimal impact on current students.

Three of the certificate programs were designed for students who planned to transfer to the University of South Carolina to pursue bachelor’s degrees in chemical, civil and mechanical, and electric engineering.

USC does not require applicants to complete the transfer certificates, though, so most Trident Tech students complete their transfer courses as part of their associate in science degrees and transfer without the certificates. In the past five years, the three engineering certificates have produced no graduates, said a memo from Catharine Almquist, Trident Tech’s vice president for academic affairs.

The fourth certificate program to be eliminated is the medical record coder certificate, which has seen “sharp declines in enrollment and graduates over the past several years,” according to Almquist’s memo, from 24 students and 21 graduates in 2015 to 11 students and eight graduates in 2017. There are only three students in the current class.

In her memo, Almquist attributed the decline in enrollment to the program’s loss of financial aid eligibility because of federal employment regulations, as well as the Trident Tech’s associate degree in health information management started in 2015 that covers some of the same areas as the certificate. Trident Tech will continue to offer medical record coding classes through its continuing education division.