Over the last four years, a new generation of Harvard students has emerged—those who earn course credit while never stepping foot on campus.

Harvard’s foray into distance learning, which began in the fall of 1997 with one course taught by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ Extension School, has grown to a collection of dozens of online courses offered at a majority of the University’s 11 schools.

But before such growth leads to students earning degrees through online course work, University President Lawrence H. Summers will establish a committee of professors to consider if the meaning of a Harvard degree depends on physical presence in Harvard’s classrooms.

Existing University policy mandates that in order to receive a degree at Harvard, students must spend at least one full academic year studying on campus. But this policy had received little attention before Summers’ arrival on campus.

“There are some [distance learning] programs in parts of the University that push the limits or go beyond the limits of those statutes,” Summers says. He declines, however, to name the specific programs in violation.

He says the new committee—to be named in the coming weeks—will discuss this residency requirement and its appropriateness with the advent of distance education.

“The question has arisen as lifestyles change and it becomes more difficult for mid-career professionals to come to the University for part of their career,” he says.

Provost Steven E. Hyman—whose office will oversee the committee—says the investigations will extend beyond the boundaries of distance learning.

“The mission of this committee is to understand what we’re going to require for any type of Harvard degree,” he says. “We don’t want to undercut the meaning of a Harvard degree.”

Earning an Exemption

Despite Summers’ decision to look at the residency rule, at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) a degree-granting distance learning program has been given an administrative green light to continue even though its students do not spend a year on campus.

Nancy M. Kane, who directs the HSPH Master of Science Program in Health Care Management, explains that her students’ continued involvement in their careers as doctors makes it impossible to come to Harvard for an entire year.

Instead, over a period of two years, students come for three full weeks in the summer and five four-day weekends during the academic year, in addition to online course work.

“They need management skills, but they can’t drop their jobs and come to school,” Kane says.

When word of the HSPH program reached Mass. Hall, Summers met the school’s administrators, and Kane herself met with Hyman, she says.