Indiana public colleges are required to cut or merge roughly 580 academic programs after a 2025 state law directed the Indiana Commission for Higher Education to remove offerings that graduate too few students. The commission’s review indicates about 370 programs would be merged or consolidated, while 210 would be suspended or eliminated, representing roughly a quarter of Indiana’s public academic offerings. No new students would enter affected programs starting in fall 2027, though students may continue toward completion. Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has backed the approach as steering investment toward higher-demand fields. But the policy also raises concerns among higher education experts about the limits of enrollment and graduate-number thresholds for capturing long-run curricular value—especially for general education and prerequisite-heavy disciplines.