FARMINGTON

The leader of a group working to streamline course offerings in the Maine university system says the goal is to have individual campuses develop specializations that can be offered to students at other campuses.

Kathryn Foster, president of the University of Maine at Farmington, is leading a committee that has been asked to propose at least three pilot projects that can be tested during the coming academic year. She told the Morning Sentinel that ultimately, students attending one of the seven schools could receive part of their education at other institutions within the system, either in person or through distance learning.

The process will start with reviewing the course offerings and curriculum across the campuses and finding opportunities to integrate, she said.

“One concern people might have is that if you have just one menu, then all of the campuses will look the same,” she said. “Our intention and principle behind this is the opposite. It’s not to homogenize the campuses, it’s to differentiate.”

Overhauling course offerings is part of a broader five-year strategic plan trustees recently approved for the university system, which has struggled with declining enrollment and flat state funding. Plans developed by Foster’s group will go to trustees for approval, and anything that is approved won’t have any practical impact until late 2016.

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