Students who may be thinking about seeking a two-year associate's degree in massage therapy from St. Charles Community College will soon have to start from scratch.

That's because massage therapy is one of five programs set for deletion from the college's course catalog at the end of this school year. The other associate degree programs to be axed are environmental science, electronics engineering technology, industrial maintenance technology and medical transcription.

The five degree offerings were listed by the college for deletion in a review of public college and university academic programs released earlier this month by Gov. Jay Nixon. The review is an indication that state higher education officials may be more closely scrutinizing college courses and programs that have low enrollments and graduate few students.

Michael Banks, SCC vice president of academics and student affairs, said Thursday that none of the courses have students enrolled or staff. "These five are not going to impact us and will be gone from the books by June 30," Banks said.

The five are among 28 programs identified for review that have graduated few students in the last three years, Banks said. The five to be deleted graduated no students.

Other associate degree and certificate programs identified in the report graduated a limited number of students. A human resources assistant associate program graduated two students, a pre-engineer associate program graduated two students, a human service assistant associate program graduated two students, and a criminal justice program graduated two students.

Banks said the college reviews all of its programs. If a program is to be canceled, the college will try to wait until students enrolled have gone through the program before cancelling it.

"We have made a commitment to those students when we offer those programs," Banks said.

Some associate degree programs and certificates remain because the college works with businesses in the community to provide specialized training, or some of the subject courses are part of other degree programs, Banks said. The review notes that the state accepted justifications for 10 programs because they often share courses and faculty with other programs and are part of agreements with area businesses.

Seven programs shouldn't have been included on the review list because they have been approved in the last five years and haven't had enough time to demonstrate their viability and whether students want to take them, according to the state's review.

The academic program review from the state's Coordinating Board of Higher Education was part of a statewide comprehensive review by all of Missouri's 14 two-year colleges and 13 four-year colleges and universities. It came out of a higher education summit convened by Nixon last summer.

Schools throughout Missouri identified 118 programs to be closed — including the five SCC programs — due to "low productivity," which is measured by the number of graduates over three years. The state's Department of Higher Education recommended that 175 programs be reviewed in three years to see if student enrollment is up.

The report also recommended that priority areas, including science, technology, engineering, mathematics, foreign languages and teacher education, be strengthened.

Banks said even though the state can regulate programs, this is not something he's seen before. "I haven't seen this in my two years in this position," he said.