How long does it take?

4 years! This is how long does it take to go through college to get a Bachelor's degree. It doesn't matter if the degree is in the social sciences, humanities, arts, business, or hard sciences and mathematics. The time it takes is independent of the subject of study, the time is (was) established based on the need for the individual to mature from the late teens to the early twenties. It was designed as a post-secondary step in order to get a level of understanding and maturity that allowed the graduate to participate in society as a creative member based on his "liberal arts education." It was about liberating the individual to perform outside of the "being employed" scheme and allowed the individual to pursue a "professional" career through the skill s/he had developed during those four years. That could be "arithmetic" to do accounting, or writing in the varied disciplines of our society. As the amount of knowledge started to accumulate many colleges and universities started to use those four years in a different way. Giving more time to the area of specialization the so called "major" and less time was devoted to the general education core studies, all because there was a time restrain of four years to obtain the degree.
Time has come to re-examine this practice and time has come to re-evaluate the purpose of a baccalaureate degree.
As far as one can define the general purpose of education one should say that the purpose is to prepare citizens that are active constituents and builders of our society. Participants in the self preservation of the human species and means through which our society improves. Of course one is taking for granted that if the individual is performing task necessary for humanity the utilitarian nature of these services will guarantee that his/her own personal survival will be protected and in some cases rewarded with a very comfortable standard of living. This utilitarian nature has made some "majors" more attractive than others and in some cases will determine the starting salary or income as the new graduate joins the career market.
The idea that education will improve the way in which one is useful to society and therefore will be more employable is what is driving many adults to go back to school and this new market is feeding the desire for many institutions and business to get in the adult education endeavor, be it for profit or not.
So as these new programs are being established for these new kind of students the "4 year paradigm" is not longer valid or useful and shorter models have been developed. The question one has to address here is if this new model with less time of study will be good enough for all the disciplines currently being addressed in colleges and universities.
The other question one might address is if these new programs that are working for adults returning to classrooms after some years out of high school is adaptable to students  with much less experience who have just finished secondary education. Could it be that with new technologies and strategies one could have some students getting a bachelor's degree in three or less years for some disciplines while for some others will take more than the standard four years?