PITTSBURGH— Leaders of Pennsylvania's state-owned universities are proposing that students be able to enroll in collaborative degree programs that would combine courses and instructors from more than one of the system's 14 universities.

A report to be presented to the faculty union today is expected to include recommendations for "shared programs" in foreign languages and physics, according to officials such as Karen Ball, vice chancellor for external relations for the State System of Higher Education. The system includes Slippery Rock University.

Officials said the pilot programs could use software that enables distance learning. The proposal stems from a review of undergraduate and graduate programs that have low enrollments on individual campuses.

"The idea is not to have the student be campus-bound," Ball said. "The focus is to have our students benefit from being part of a system. These students will get part of their program or a course offering from faculty that's on a campus that's not their (home) campus."

State system administrators are expected to outline Monday which programs they plan to discontinue or impose an enrollment moratorium on, and which will continue unchanged or with modifications.

The program review began last fall amid financial challenges for the state system schools of that also includes Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, and West Chester universities.

At least four universities have announced planned or possible cuts in the work force to deal with declining state support and the anticipated loss starting in July 2011 of $38 million in federal stimulus aid. One of those schools in SRU.

The schools, which enroll a total of 117,000 students, also are facing a major increase in required contributions to the State Employees Retirement System. However, Ball said that savings are secondary to ensuring that the system's 1,260 undergraduate and graduate degree programs are relevant.

"This is being student driven," she said. "What courses are in high demand? What courses are in low demand? Are the courses that are in low demand still essential for core areas of our system?"

Faculty members have expressed concern that the degree reviews could be a prelude to reducing the number of professors across the system, despite an increase of 22,000 students over the past decade.