The class of 2021 will be the last to graduate with a bachelor's degree in dental hygiene from the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at the University of Southern California (USC), the university said.
The higher admission standards at USC were making it more difficult to fill the dental hygiene classes with the right candidates, according to a university spokesperson. The current class has only 20 students.
The dental hygiene program started in 1928 as a two-year certificate program; it became a bachelor's degree program in 1962.