NOTE: This
page is best viewed with internet explorer
Proposal
to Establish
the
College of Applied and Professional Studies (CAPS)
Rutgers
University
Office
of the Vice President for Continuous Education and Outreach
Draft
Revision
October
1, 2001
***************
Introduction
Over the next quarter of a century,
higher education will undergo an irreversible revolution, driven by powerful
societal, economic, and technological forces. Demographic data indicate that
the 18-22 year old cohort is growing at a rate of about 2.2 percent per year; a
30 percent increase will occur between 1996 and 2008. The growth rate for the
post-baccalaureate educational sector is even higher, some estimates placing it
as high as 18 percent annually. Higher education will be facing a massive
paradigm shift.
Post-baccalaureate education will
increasingly become place-flexible for a growing portion of our future
clientele. Many of these people will
have long-since graduated from college, and will be out in the workforce. They
need further education for personal and professional development. Many of them
need (and will profit from) a Rutgers-caliber program. To serve these future educational consumers,
we will have to take the education to them.
Rutgers can meet this challenge with a
distributed adult education network for the entire state of New Jersey. Our
natural clientele is the upper segment of the educational market. This is the group of people who require
high-caliber applied and professional training to broaden their own skills, and
enable their upward employment mobility. Some of that can be accomplished by
moving the instructor to areas of regional need, taking the education to the
students, rather than having them come to campus, the traditional strategy.
This type of response, distributed program delivery for adult and place bound
students, will take on even greater importance as all of higher education,
Rutgers included, strives to meet the enrollment demands of the emerging tidal
wave of traditional 18 to 22 year olds.
Other strategies are available for
taking the instructor to where there is need.
We can serve many portions of the state electronically from our three
campuses or from strategically located off-campus facilities. Interactive video
classroom facilities are already available on all three campuses, Freehold, and
other off-campus locations. Thus, interactive synchronous instruction is
currently available. Through the Rutgers Regional Network SONET-ring technology
slated for completion April 2002, and connectivity through NJedge.net we will
be able to reach virtually any location in the state with synchronous
interactive and/or asynchronous instruction.
We are
engaged in ongoing conversations with both regional groups and community
colleges about unmet educational needs within the state. The call for
baccalaureate degree completion programs, via distance learning for that
distributed community college clientele, is so pressing that the State
Commission on Higher Education has agreed to serve as a clearinghouse for such
programs throughout the state. Rutgers is clearly the institution that is best
positioned to deliver the top-quality upper division credit and degree-bearing
programs.
There
is some urgency. Every institution in our region is experimenting with distance
learning. The large AAU publics from neighboring states are already approaching
our potential New Jersey higher education partners. Several of our county
colleges have even entered articulation agreements with an institution not yet
even licensed in New Jersey. If we do
not seize this opportunity, someone else will, and we will become progressively
marginalized. We must act now or cede our public service and outreach mission
to others.
For
these reasons, we propose the establishment of a new academic unit at Rutgers
University, designed to better align academic planning and distributed program
delivery with rapidly changing workforce developments in the state of New
Jersey.
Challenges nationally in higher
education
The entire nation finds itself in an
increasingly complex educational environment, and the higher education
community is scrambling to respond to very rapid changes, among which are the
following[1]:
·
Part-time students are the fastest growing clientele in higher
education, a demographic trend that will continue well into this new century.
·
The
composition of the U.S. civilian labor force will change dramatically by the
year 2005, but the number of new entrants into that labor force will be
insufficient for the economy’s needs.
·
Tuition costs continue to outpace inflation, thereby placing ever
greater emphasis on flexibility in acquiring affordable portions of programs
and degrees.
·
More Americans are college-bound than ever before, encompassing a
much broader range in age and ethnicity, as well as more equitable
participation by gender.
·
Continuous learning yields higher earnings, as workers upgrade the
skill sets being demanded by virtually all professions.
·
Nearly half of the adult population participates annually in
continuing professional education activities.
Approximately 6.4 million adult students over the age of 25, will enroll
in higher education by 2002.[2]
·
Single women head increasing numbers of families. This particular
group is especially interested in educational opportunities that are convenient,
both in time and place.
·
The total current enrollment in credit-bearing asynchronous
distance learning courses is almost 700,000 adults. This number is expected to grow
to over 2.5 million by 2005, representing a compound growth rate of
approximately 20 percent per year.
·
Job growth is fastest in occupational groups requiring more
education, thereby placing greater demands on the educational system. Much of
this education will be at the post-baccalaureate level.
·
The older adult population is expanding rapidly, with individuals
remaining in the work force longer, reinforcing the need for lifelong
post-baccalaureate opportunities that are skill-focused and career related.
Colleges
and universities throughout the nation are now working to serve the adult
student and broader sectors of our market area, through the delivery of needed
or desired programs. The adult,
off-campus clientele will have different needs than traditional, on-campus
18-22 year olds. In addition to
programs that develop very specific job market skills, adult-oriented programs
are also designed to broaden, enlighten and entertain. Collegiate units that
routinely serve the adult student have admissions criteria that recognize the
learning derived from life or work experience.
The New Jersey challenge
The national
trends mentioned above are particularly evident in New Jersey, where an
estimated 25,000 adults are enrolled in asynchronous distance learning courses.[3]
This trend is fueled by employer interest in advanced education and training
for its workforce that is accessible, but that does not interfere with ‘job
time’. The number of students in
asynchronous courses in New Jersey will grow to over 100,000 within the next
five years. Surveying the challenges facing our state over the next decade or
two, it is clear that we need a rapid-response academic unit. Even a very
superficial glance at emerging issues provides a clear picture of the
significant challenges facing the state.
In
keeping with emerging nationwide trends, it is estimated that the number of New
Jersey high school graduates will increase from 78,762 in 1996 to 102,600 in
2008. Every one of the state’s higher education institutions will be hard
pressed to respond to on-campus demands, resulting from the enrollment growth
from this ‘baby boom shadow’. Higher Education in New Jersey is scrambling to
keep up, and is already falling behind. The leading edge of this demographic
wave is already passing through its collegiate years, hinting at further growth
in post-baccalaureate adult continuing professional education based solely upon
demographics.
To
make the situation worse, systemic and structural changes in business and
industry since the mid-1980s require lifelong professional education for people
in the work force who wish to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving labor
market. It is estimated that today’s typical college graduate will require the
equivalent of seven additional years of education and/or training, over a
working lifetime, to stay competitive in the employment marketplace with the
current rate of change.
Just as
structural changes in the economy have resulted in the increased need for
life-long learning for workforce competitiveness, so has the need for such
programs to be locally accessible. People must retrain periodically, but they
cannot do so by returning to campus to do so. It is clear that Higher Education
will have to take the education and training to them.
Several studies
now show the need for upper-division degree-completion programs, distributed
throughout the state. A recent survey of community college presidents has
identified 110 currently unmet requests for upper-division off-campus or
distance learning degree completion programs (Appendix A) for regionally
place bound and adult students. The delivery of cogent programs in a
marketplace that is shifting rapidly over space and time is not well-served by
the traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ solution. We have to ‘take our show on the
road’.
In addition to growth in distance
learning challenges, several areas in New Jersey are, or soon will be,
critically deficient in public upper division and graduate programs. The Commission on Higher Education already
has identified the Monmouth/Ocean County region as a priority. There, the
number of students graduating from high school will increase 50 percent within
the next decade, and job growth in technology and tourism, key elements in that
region’s economy, will outpace the state average. The northwestern region of
the state, including Warren, Sussex, and Western Morris counties, will also
experience higher than average growth, in both population and industry. The population of Sussex County, for
example, continues to grow at approximately 20 percent per decade, far
exceeding the state’s average growth rate.
Adults in this region are not well served by public higher education.
The creation of a new ‘bricks and mortar’ institution is not recommended, nor
is it probable that the projected regional growth will be accommodated within
the bounds of existing campuses.
What has been happening in higher education and what
will continue to happen is that students change. They are just as bright, just as interested and just as
motivated. But they are also employed,
older and have responsibilities. Many
of tomorrow’s students will not be able or willing to take two to four years
off so that they can qualify for an on-campus degree. That doesn’t mean that institutions will go without students, it
simply means that some of the best and the brightest will look for more
attractive or feasible alternatives.
So, Rutgers doesn’t have to do a thing and
enrollments on-campus will stay up, and even increase based on a growing number
of “typical” college-aged students.
Does the State University want to educate that population of students
residing in the state who cannot come to campus? Many of them are just as capable students, who may live and work
at distances that make commutation to one of our three main campuses
impractical. Many of our counterparts
have decided that they like qualified students regardless of location. In fact, they think that New Jersey is
fertile ground for great students.
Babson and Duke are two examples of out of state institutions currently
providing programs to AT&T and Lucent, corporations we would regard as “neighbors”. So, the void is being and will continue to be filled. The only question is does Rutgers
participate in filling it?
Although
Rutgers has a number of professional schools (e.g. management, social work,
education, pharmacy), we offer fewer distributed degree programs than many
large institutions. Programs such as Management of Justice Systems have
considerable distributed potential, but have not been developed well to
date. Programs that are most
conspicuous by their absence within the university, given major current economic
activity, are real estate and land development, recreation administration,
applied computing and network administration, allied health administration, and
aviation. Peer land grant and state university institutions have successfully
added many such programs to their distributed education portfolios.
Rutgers
was one of the first universities in New Jersey to enter into partnership with
a community college in an effort to provide coordinated upper level courses for
off-campus students completing a baccalaureate degree. A growing number of place-bound
non-traditional community college graduates want to obtain a baccalaureate
degree, but do not have convenient access to a state four-year
institution. The statewide need for
degree completion programs is so critical that the NJCHE is assisting with the
assessment of regional requests. If New
Jersey institutions cannot meet these programmatic needs, ‘out of state’
institutions will.
There
are several advantages to providing new applied programs through a coordinated
approach within a new academic unit, including:
(1)
A new university-wide academic unit will more likely achieve the
externalities of scale that would improve the level of service to the regional
place-bound and adult off-campus student.
(2)
It would more likely be able to provide a wider range of applied
and professional undergraduate and graduate opportunities than would narrowly
defined professional schools.
(3)
It will be better positioned to respond to the public need for new
programming in a timely fashion.
(4)
By operating on a self-sustaining basis, it will seek to
reallocate resources in an appropriate manner to programs with growing demand,
from those programs no longer in demand.
(5)
It would be in a better position to develop a state-wide network
of off-campus learning facilities, thereby supporting large scale, state-wide
programs more effectively.
All of these advantages, and more, would
allow us to fulfill public service roles that historically have been within our own
domain, but that Rutgers has allowed to atrophy as it focused on research and
traditional campus bound populations.
The need for new graduate and professional
certification programs
Previous
efforts to provide credit courses at off-campus locations have been decentralized
and largely circumscribed. Courses have
been highly focused albeit with limited degree availability. This is in
striking contrast to developments among our peer institutions, both regionally
and nationwide. Penn State, for example, has announced its plan to make as many
as 25 of its leading graduate professional degrees available off-campus, and
via the Internet, projecting enrollments as large as 10,000 annually.
University College of the University of Maryland, with 30 degrees, is also expanding
off-campus degree availability.
Rutgers
efforts at the graduate level have been largely uncoordinated, as well as
decentralized. Although credit-bearing courses are offered at several dozen
locations by units from all three campuses, Rutgers fails to achieve a coherent
presence in any of these communities.
Monmouth County is the exception.
In this instance, Rutgers has a coordinated effort, through the
Rutgers-Brookdale Partnership in Higher Education. Elsewhere, there is little
or no coordination between Rutgers academic units. Each collegiate unit chooses its sites and orchestrates its
programmatic development and advertising independently, without regard to other
university efforts in the area.
As
will be described in detail below, the creation of a new academic unit
operating off-campus is not intended to interfere with the autonomy of existing
schools in how they plan and operate their off-campus programs. However, the presence of the new school will
provide greater program availability and will create a distributed delivery
network for those programs. This
infrastructure can be a valuable resource that existing units with off-campus
efforts would be encouraged to share, yielding significant concomitant benefits
to all.
There
is considerable statewide demand for degree-granting programs in emerging
professional areas that Rutgers has not addressed. Projections of labor demand
document a shortage of well-trained professionals in several applied
disciplinary areas, including applied computing and network administration,
real estate and land development, management of justice systems, and others.
Traditional
collegiate faculties, already fully deployed in research and providing
on-campus instruction, cannot be expected to redirect resources from these
tasks. Not surprisingly, attempts to engage existing academic units to meet the
distributed program needs of the state in these rapidly emerging fields have
been thwarted, frustrated by full-deployment on-campus, and the natural desire
to pursue mission critical research. The workable solution is to create a new
unit that will take the development and deployment of market-driven programs as
its raison d’être, engaging a faculty
that will be rewarded for quality distributed instruction as its primary
mission. This new unit will be charged
with the task of developing an off-campus infrastructure that can foster and
encourage mutually beneficial partnerships between itself and with existing
Rutgers collegiate units, and community colleges statewide.
Rutgers
is not the first major institution to follow this path, and it behooves us to
learn from those who have gone before. Virtually all of our peer institutions
have found ways to serve the needs of emergent professional programs, and
adults seeking to remain competitive in the workforce. Diverse programs in
liberal studies are almost always included as a counter-weight as educational
enrichment for these service missions.
We reviewed four large mid-Atlantic programs, as a way of identifying
the lessons that should guide our own efforts. We provide extensive program
detail for each of these programs in Appendix B, but a few salient
observations here should suffice to convey the central organizational and
strategic messages for Rutgers.
University of Maryland, University College
University College
of the University of Maryland has pursued its prime mission for 50 years: to
provide adult, part-time students with high-quality off-campus educational
opportunities. UMUC receives partial state support ($17M for FY2000), and has
500 full-time faculty. UMUC has a
regular faculty track, from Instructor ® Assistant Professor ® Associate Professor ® Professor. Classrooms are positioned throughout
the Maryland-Washington, DC area, and at over 100 overseas locations. Students
can ‘attend class’ from anywhere in the world by connecting via the Internet.
UMUC has the largest online program of any university in the world; students
can choose from dozens of complete Bachelors and Masters programs, via the
university's own proprietary interactive classroom software. UMUC provides many
of its programs entirely on-line, and deploys highly regarded distance
education software that enrolls over 6,300 students in over 23,000 course registrations
annually. Multiple curricula, with convenient delivery formats and innovative
credit options, are promoted as ideal for adult, part-time students who are
looking for a top-quality, practical education.
We are learning much from the examples and
successes of some of our peer institutions, particularly in the mid-Atlantic
region. Beyond our own region, many of our peers have been leaders in this
field for many years. For example, the University of Wisconsin established
early in the 20th century what was to become known as the “Wisconsin Idea” of
public service to the statewide community. The University of Wisconsin
Extension Division was established in 1906 and received funding in 1907. The
objective was to ensure that the resources of most campus schools and
departments would be made available to people in all Wisconsin communities.
CAPS has been designed with the Wisconsin Idea in mind. Some of the more
important lessons learned from the study of our peer institutions include:
·
A separate academic unit dedicated to the
mission of applied and professional studies is needed to be responsive to the
market.
·
A separate academic unit dedicated to the
mission of distributed program delivery for place-bound and adult students is
necessary to serve clients well.
·
The starting point for successful programs
in this arena is market demand and workforce development needs.
·
The academic product needs to be
programmatically coherent and provide added value for the customer.
·
A dedicated academic unit can provide a
seamless and one-stop administrative apparatus for the customer.
·
Like the Wisconsin Idea, the boundaries of
the University are the boundaries of the state. CAPS will address this
objective through multiple off campus locations and a variety of delivery
formats, to provide service, first and foremost, to the entire state of New
Jersey.
·
There is a natural affinity between
continuing, professional, and distance education, and housing all three within
the same academic unit makes both academic and administrative sense.
·
Highly responsive organizations adapt more
quickly to market changes and use routine feedback and quality control elements
from the beginning of the program cycle.
·
Multiple curricula with convenient delivery
formats and innovative opportunities for place-bound and adult part-time
students are prerequisite components of successful dedicated schools of applied
and professional studies.
Rutgers University’s proposed College of Applied and Professional Studies
(CAPS) is a natural way to respond to current trends in Higher Education.
Rutgers
is unique. It is New Jersey’s capstone public university, as well as its land
grant institution with outreach education as a substantial part of our historic
mandate. Rutgers must reassert its presence throughout the state, by providing
carefully selected, and high-quality educational programs to New Jersey’s
distributed citizenry. This will require vision, understanding of the
continuing professional development needs of our state, deployment of high
quality innovative programs, central planning and coordination, highly
coordinated marketing, and an effective management strategy for a widely
distributed operation.
A revitalized outreach vision
This proposal is
for the establishment of a new academic unit at Rutgers University, designed to
better align academic planning and program delivery with rapidly changing
workforce developments in the state of New Jersey. This new academic unit, the Rutgers University College of Applied
and Professional Studies (CAPS), will have a clear mandate to develop and
deliver high-priority, innovative and flexible educational programs that will
have the following distinctive features:
Top Quality: Because Rutgers is the top-quality professional education
provider in the state of New Jersey, CAPS will develop and market high quality
programs for the top end of the educational market. Rutgers can define and
compete for that market by:
·
Ensuring
that our courses, our curricula, and our faculty have been vetted, via the
standard Rutgers review process, involving departmental, collegiate, and
university-level evaluation, prior to being offered.
·
Requiring
subsequent/ongoing self-study, peer review, and outside review of all programs on
a regular basis, as well as student evaluations of courses, programs, and
faculty.
·
Insisting on
proper certification/accreditation (within a reasonable time frame) by such
professional bodies as normally provide that service for the sorts of professional
programs we plan to offer.
·
Hiring only
top-quality faculty to develop and deliver these programs; faculty who meet the
same rigorous standards as on-campus Rutgers faculty, though chosen with their
alternative instructionally-focused mission in mind.
Applied and professional studies: CAPS will concentrate on delivering upper
division degree completion and post-graduate applied and professional education
to a growing adult off-campus clientele, by the following:
·
Expanding
selected graduate certificate and masters degree programs, consistent with New
Jersey’s emerging workforce needs (see Appendix A),
·
Developing
novel upper-division baccalaureate programs, in concert with New Jersey’s
community colleges and Rutgers’ University Colleges on all three campuses, thereby delivering a workforce equipped with the
necessary skills for employment in a highly volatile and rapidly changing labor
market,
·
Restricting
development of undergraduate programs to those that serve the off-campus adult
and Commission on Higher Education targeted populations, such as applied
computing and network administration, the management of justice systems, real
estate and land development, and general professional studies programs.
·
Developing a
high quality full-time faculty, whose reappointment and promotion would be
based primarily on teaching-advising-counseling, service, and secondarily on
scholarship, the latter oriented toward industrial or public service issues.
Market-driven strategies: CAPS will utilize innovative business models to
insure cost-effective/cost recovery delivery of programs, starting with the
following
·
An initial
investment of $3 million over a three-year period for the development and support of initial infrastructure and 16
non-state funded faculty positions.
This investment, like that of both SROA and the Reinvestment in Rutgers
initiatives, will provide significant beneficial leverage. This investment will
generate 30 additional self-supported full-time faculty positions by 2004-5.
·
Enrollment
levels projected for 2007-2008 are expected to generate approximately 47
full-time, self-sustaining faculty positions and 15 staff positions, thus
leveraging this initial investment by a factor of almost 4:1.
Distributed education: CAPS will decouple higher education from
‘place-based’ thinking, taking the educational expertise of the University to
the clientele. Rutgers will develop a
presence throughout the state, thereby bringing the University to the student,
through the following actions:
·
Creating a
network of accessible off-campus locations to expand educational outreach and
explicitly linking our educational mission to our Land Grant mandate.
·
Employing
distance-learning technologies (including both online and interactive video
modes of instruction) to extend educational opportunities, both within the
borders of the state, and beyond.
Contact Point: CAPS will provide, where mutually agreed to, an infrastructure umbrella
for Rutgers’ widely disparate, and eclectic collection of off-campus offerings
by:
·
Working with
Rutgers’ on-campus colleges whenever that is mutually beneficial, and in the
same fashion as with the community colleges, capitalizing on their educational
expertise, while providing the CAPS staffing, administrative, and marketing
umbrella for the benefit of our entire off-campus enterprise, to ensure that
CAPS will complement ongoing efforts, building on current successes.
·
Developing high-quality
initiatives that will take nothing away from any existing off-campus program,
and will work toward mutually beneficial relationships by (1) setting up
off-campus connections, partnerships and resources, (2) putting in place with
RUCS and NJEdge.net the Internet and telecommunications network, and (3)
continuing to survey the demand for new and existing programs.
·
Ensuring
that existing schools will be able to determine if they want to participate,
when they want to participate, and how they will want to participate in these
initiatives.
The
expertise of current tenure-track faculty will be an invaluable resource for
CAPS students and faculty, and CAPS will work to extend the services provided
by its infrastructure to any other departments or schools whose students and
faculty will benefit from such collaboration.
Degrees to be offered and possible
programmatic priorities
Since CAPS is designed to provide applied and professional
training to adult students, it should grant degrees that both represent the
nature of these programs and appropriately differentiate CAPS degrees from
those granted by other Rutgers schools and colleges. Thus, CAPS will offer the Bachelor in Professional Studies (BPS)
and the Master in Professional Studies degree (MPS) only.
A variety of factors were considered in the
development of proposed programmatic priorities, including: (a) identification
of regional program demands, (b) identification of key service areas, and (c)
efficient and effective delivery modalities.
The recent Commission on Higher Education Survey of two-year colleges
was useful in these efforts, as were workforce demand data. In response to
these developing educational challenges, we are considering development and
implementation the following preliminary set of off-campus, place-bound and
adult focused program initiatives:
·
upper
division degree-completion and master degree programs in applied computing and
network administration with programming, database, digital video and animation,
webmaster, and media and graphics subspecialties;
·
upper
division degree-completion and master degree programs in the management of
justice systems;
·
upper
division degree-completion and master degree programs in real estate and economic
development, including development, finance, management, and construction
project management subspecialties;
·
upper
division degree-completion program in recreation and tourism management, with
subspecialties in turf & golf course management, hospitality, and
recreation management; and
·
upper
division degree completion and master degree programs in general professional
studies, the former focusing particularly upon graduates from narrowly defined
community-college technical programs that award the A.S. and A.A.S. degrees,
which are difficult to articulate into existing baccalaureate degree-completion
programs.
Common to all programs would be the integration
of several professional competencies including, but not limited to: leadership,
diversity awareness, critical thinking, mediation and negotiation skills,
communication skills, information technology, and teamwork. Weaving a common
professional studies theme through several program areas is an efficacious
model for working adults with successful precedent (the BPS model developed at
Syracuse is one example).
The challenge will be to develop curriculum and faculty at a
rapid pace while maintaining educational integrity and excellence worthy of the
Rutgers name. Mechanisms for doing so, through collaboration with existing
units and involvement of tenured faculty, are discussed later in this document.
Regional
coverage
It is obvious that the need for these and other programs
is widely dispersed throughout the state.
New Jersey’s Higher Education Capacity Task Force has, among other
findings, recommended partnerships between institutions as one way of
addressing existing and future demand in regions of the state that are
currently underserved by public higher education. As New Jersey’s comprehensive
public research university, Rutgers must provide leadership in such
partnerships, addressing these new challenges. CAPS will provide a mechanism
for addressing program priorities that have not been well served to date.
To meet
these pressing and growing needs, CAPS will be the degree-granting collegiate
unit for Rutgers’ off-campus campus and distance learning communities,
especially for applied and professional masters, baccalaureate-completion, and
undergraduate inter-disciplinary courses, programs and degrees not yet
available through an existing unit. This single point of contact for off-campus
students establishes a visible and tangible off-campus presence for Rutgers,
throughout the state of New Jersey.
Rutgers
plans to deploy these and other appropriate programs initially in several
regions throughout the state that have been identified by CHE as underserved by
public higher education: e.g. Monmouth-Ocean, Trenton-Flemington, Atlantic-Cape
May, and Northwestern New Jersey. We already have a presence in the first two
areas; the third is being discussed with the higher education and government
officials in the Atlantic City region, and the newly located Western Morris
continuing education center can provide a preliminary site while other deployment
strategies are explored for the northwestern portion of the state.
While leased facilities throughout these strategically
defined regions will serve as locations for in-person program delivery, Rutgers
will also integrate telecommunication and internet technologies extensively
into CAPS programming, through both two-way interactive video and internet (or
web-based) courses, making use of the Rutgers Regional Network and NJEdge.net
where feasible. Thus, the CAPS
instructional program will be successfully distributed throughout the state
because the fundamental strategy is built upon a range of delivery methods including: live instruction at distributed sites, live
instruction at multiple distributed sites using two-way interactive
technologies, live hybrid courses that utilize considerable internet support
and finally, courses that are based entirely upon asynchronous interactive
pedagogy.
Rutgers will deploy instruction and training resources to
meet strategic regional workforce needs, in collaboration with our community
college partners and the state. It may be useful to have a regional presence at
the local community colleges, but details aside, the operative principle will
be to provide a physical presence wherever needed to handle the traffic that
will develop.
Advantages
of a separate college
The development of a stand-alone academic unit, with a
broadly defined professional and applied mission to serve off-campus and distance
learning students, has the following advantages:
·
Rutgers
clearly is the preferred program provider in the state, and it needs a
mechanism to respond to statewide needs in a coherent and timely manner.
Today’s service model of choice is “one-stop-shopping.” There are a number of
competitors in this arena of applied and professional studies. However, when
given the option, time and again adult and continuing education students have
expressed the desire to receive their education from Rutgers University. At the
same time, these very students, busy with professional lives and family
commitments, are not willing to spend an inordinate amount of time navigating a
difficult Rutgers bureaucracy. Furthermore, for many, the inconvenience of
travel to one of the Rutgers campuses is the final, and critical barrier to
participation.
·
The
establishment of an academic unit charged specifically with the task of
off-campus and distance-learning programs provides for a clear and single point
of responsibility. This is one of the
clear lessons of success that has been learned by our peer institutions.
Providing a seamless academic and administrative apparatus for the customer is
impossible without a dedicated academic unit with this mission.
·
The
new College can ensure and enforce quality control and quality program
assurance over developing off-campus programs. It will protect the off-campus
portfolio from unplanned growth, something that can divert much needed
resources from other institutional initiatives. Just as the on-campus program
is developed with strategic goals and targets in mind, the distributed
education model must follow a strategic plan that can only be achieved through
coordination within a single academic unit.
·
Partnerships
with CAPS will provide the benefits of administrative services, marketing, and
consistency of delivery for purposes of accreditation.
·
After
high quality, cost effective delivery becomes a central organizing principle of
the new College. This self-supporting, market-driven unit must use resources
wisely to be successful. Careful strategic planning, a singular mission, a
dedicated focus and responsiveness to market are all critical factors that come
together to provide cost effective delivery of programs. The more cost
effective that this unit is, the greater value that can be delivered to the
student. Moreover, by locating the programs and services in a single unit,
certain economies of scale can be achieved that would not otherwise be
possible. Again, these are lessons that have been learned by our top-level peer
institutions.
In
order to achieve the goals outlined above, CAPS needs to be established as a
freestanding College. Borrowing somewhat from the very successful University of
Maryland University College model, CAPS would be the ‘off-campus campus’ of
Rutgers University.
The
CAPS Dean: The Dean of the College will be appointed as the Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of the College, charged with the further development and execution
of its strategic plan. The charge will include responsibility for personnel,
academic planning, execution of the instructional program, student advising,
counseling, and all other matters normally associated with the dean of a
professional unit.
The dean of the College of Applied and Professional
Studies will be responsible for overseeing the academic and business aspects of
the College. This oversight includes working with adjunct and full-time
faculty, maintaining excellence within the academic programs, and maintaining
the Middle States Commission on Higher Education accreditation standards within
the College. The Dean must be highly
knowledgeable of the educational milieu, understand adult education, possess a
knowledge base and passion for innovative modalities of educational delivery,
and have a rigorous commitment to quality (a preliminary job description for
this position is available in Appendix C).
Consistent with its off-campus mission, the Dean of CAPS
will report to the Vice President for Continuous Education & Outreach, who
will serve in the role of chief campus academic officer for this ‘off-campus
campus’. The Vice President for Continuous Education and Outreach will provide
leadership and vision on matters of strategic planning and program development,
and will be responsible for insuring the academic quality of all programs
within the College. In that same capacity, the Vice President for Continuous
Education & Outreach will report and be accountable to the University Vice President
for Academic Affairs on matters of academic quality and policy, but will
continue reporting to the President on all other matters. The organizational
reporting chart is indicated below.
http://senate.rutgers.edu/table.jpg
Executive
Board: It is essential, particularly in the formative stages of the
college, that the CAPS dean receive advice and consent in the decision-making
process. There is the need for CAPS being agile and responsive, but not at the
expense of prudent review and discussion. In traditional academic units,
faculty serve this role. Accordingly, an Executive Board will be established to
provide the dean with advice and consent normally associated with faculty
bodies.
The
CAPS Executive Board will be comprised of full-time faculty from CAPS, tenured
faculty from traditional academic units, and academic associate deans holding
tenured faculty positions; a majority of the Executive Board will be tenured.
The Executive Board will be charged with the review and approval of CAPS
faculty, programs, and curricula, including the appointment of new faculty and
the approval of new academic programs, and the promotion and renewal of
existing faculty.
The Executive Board will also provide key
links between CAPS and the rest of the university community, allowing CAPS to
benefit from the experience and expertise of faculty from other units and
ensuring the development of mutually-beneficial relationships between CAPS and
the university as a whole.
Other
Professional Staffing In CAPS
The CAPS Dean will be assisted by
(a) an infrastructure support staff, and (b) full-time faculty serving as
undergraduate and graduate program directors.
Infrastructure
support staff: The Dean will
have an appropriate initial infrastructure support staff, consisting of a small
core of professionals: a marketing specialist, a college computer manager, site
supervisors for regional facilities, a portfolio specialist and academic counselor(s),
whose respective responsibilities will be:
·
Marketing specialist: The marketing specialist will have a dual
responsibility: to assess needs of the degree completion and post-baccalaureate
market accurately and directly assist the collegiate management team to develop
successful strategies for program development, marketing, and enrollment
management for these distributed off-campus and online programs.
·
Computer and Curriculum Design Specialists: These professionals will be responsible for collegiate on-line instructional
systems, web-sites, and electronic communication strategies. These technical
and instructional design professionals at the college will work closely with
the RUCS dean, program directors and
faculty to insure effective distributed strategies throughout all resources
(RUNet, the Rutgers Regional Network, and NJedge).
·
Portfolio Specialist/Academic Counselor: CAPS will need an Assistant Academic Dean with a background in
adult education and academic counseling experience. Many returning adult students
need appropriate, accurate and timely assessment of their prior learning
credentials. In addition, it is increasingly important to provide for
alternative assessment and portfolio assessment to allocate academic credit for
learning derived from professional experience. Currently Rutgers does not
provide this service “in-house” but sends adult students to other institutions,
like Thomas Edison State College (TESC), for these services. The credits
assessed by TESC are then accepted for transfer into Rutgers University. We
propose bringing this service in-house as part of the seamless academic and
administrative apparatus for the adult student.
·
Site Supervisors: CAPS
will require full time professionals to be deployed for each major service
area. These site supervisors will
perform a variety of tasks including recruitment and counseling, as well as
actual on-site coordination of facilities between CAPS and other Rutgers
academic units.
For
the College to meet its mandate, it must develop a quality faculty, and do so
without redirecting existing state funded research and teaching resources.
Accordingly, faculty will be placed on non-state funded budget positions and
will receive term appointments consistent with University policy. The core
instructional, curriculum and advising staffing at CAPS will be by such term
full-time faculty, budgeted directly to the college. Each full-time faculty member will be a member of the faculty of
a degree program(s).
We
will need a different sort of faculty member for CAPS than is embodied in our
standard teaching/scholarship/service paradigm, where scholarship is paramount.
Teaching, counseling and advising will be their primary responsibilities, with
public service and practitioner-oriented scholarship as secondary
responsibilities. While the CAPS
faculty will not be tenure-eligible or tenured, they will benefit from operating
within an environment where they are represented by a bargaining agent. In addition, significant involvement of
tenured faculty from other Rutgers units in the appointment, review, and
promotion of CAPS faculty will provide both quality control and an important
pro-active mechanism to help insure academic freedom among the term CAPS
faculty.
We need to
recruit high-caliber professionals: to attract and hold the best. We must
search for and retain people who can meet high quality Rutgers standards, but
who are chosen primarily for their instructional qualifications. Appointments
will be subject to rigorous academic review of performance and renewable upon
mutual agreement, with the involvement of the CAPS Executive Board. Review will be based primarily on
instructional quality, with due regard for service and applied scholarship.
Faculty performance review will follow the standard Rutgers faculty
reappointment process. Involvement of
tenured faculty in the recruitment, appointment, and review of CAPS faculty
will also insure that the quality of the collegiate faculty is commensurate
with Rutgers’ standards and academic standing.
As in the case with all
quality appointments, individuals must know that there is an opportunity for
advancement in rank. The Collegiate Faculty will follow the traditional tracked
pattern [Instructor ® Assistant Professor ® Associate Professor ® Professor], with the possibility of
promotion. Most appointments will start at the Instructor level. Term
instructors may be granted reappointment annually after review of their
performance, and at some point could be recommended for promotion to Assistant
Professor. Promotion to Assistant
Professor would result from a formal review process that would mirror that
elsewhere in the University. Faculty review will commence with the senior
program faculty and tenured personnel committee faculty, go to the CAPS
Executive Committee. This will be followed by decanal review and transmission
of recommendations to the vice president, and where appropriate, to the
PRC. CAPS faculty, therefore, will
undergo a review process analogous to the administrative path for on-campus
faculty review, from department (Personnel Committee) ® A&P (Executive Committee) ® college dean ® provost ® PRC. CAPS appointment,
reappointment, and promotion committees will be comprised mainly of tenured
faculty from appropriate units within the university. These committees will follow standard Rutgers University
processes for the appointment, reappointment, and promotion of tenure-track and
tenured faculty, but will re-weight criteria to reflect the mission of
CAPS.
After six
years in service as an Assistant Professor, promotion to Associate Professor
becomes a possibility, subject again to mutual agreement and a full review.
Similarly for Professorial rank, individuals would be eligible for promotion
after six years in rank. In special cases where on-campus or Emeritus faculty
would like to segue into this alternate role, entry rank will be laterally
transferred, but without tenure.
Collegiate faculty will be expected to
maintain a full teaching load each semester.
At the discretion of the Dean, course load may be reduced in direct
proportion to significant increases in student enrollments per contact section.
The collegiate faculty: part-time
Like all other faculties at the
University, the College will also make use of casual or per course instructors
(PTLs), and will strive to obtain roughly a 50/50 distribution in instructional
load between full-time faculty and per course instructors. Usual university standards and policies
regarding casual appointments will be applied at CAPS.
Use of existing university
faculty
CAPS will draw on the
expertise of existing tenured faculty in the development, approval, and
instruction of its academic programs.
These collaborations will work to the mutual benefit of CAPS and the
existing tenured faculty and schools, and will exist only when mutually
agreed upon. However, the value of
the contribution of current tenured faculty in ensuring the initial and continuing
quality of all CAPS programs cannot be understated.
CAPS will seek to develop mutually
beneficial partnerships with existing schools and colleges, and encourage
participation in CAPS programs by those on-campus faculty who both wish to
contribute and whose participation is endorsed by their departments and deans. Participation in CAPS programs by existing
faculty may take one or more of many forms.
Existing
faculty may receive appointments in a particular academic program in CAPS,
and/or participate fully in the design, development, and oversight of these
newly emerging CAPS programs. In this
instance, faculty would be able to help construct CAPS programs as part of a
CAPS Program Planning Committee, but they would not be required to teach
in the off-campus programs should they choose not to. Where appropriate, existing faculty may teach in CAPS programs,
on terms that are mutually agreed to.
Partnerships may
be developed whereby on-campus courses may be transmitted using interactive video.
In liberal arts areas, for example, where CAPS will not build faculty capacity,
considerable opportunities exist for partnerships with many departments on all
three main campuses. Cooperation and
coordination with emerging CAPS programs will provide existing departments with
opportunities to generate resources to support their own on-campus
programs.
Under
existing circumstances, a department contributing a single course to an
off-campus initiative would not likely yield sufficient enrollments to be worth
the investment of resources. However,
as part of a larger, centrally coordinated effort larger thresholds become
possible and these individual contributions and partnerships have the capacity
to add significant breadth and quality to our statewide effort. Both in the
liberal arts and cognate professional programs (management, education, etc.),
the possibility would also exist for CAPS to provide faculty positions that
could be budgeted to an existing school or faculty rather than in CAPS, in return
for an agreed upon level of instruction off-campus or at a distance. Hence,
CAPS will be an important catalyst to generate new resources by and for
existing academic units.
Opportunities therefore exist for
schools and departments to participate in the CAPS off-campus efforts in a
variety of ways that are appropriate and mutually beneficial. Existing schools
would have enhanced opportunities to generate resources that could be used by
them to further support their traditional on-campus mission. As mentioned
earlier, existing units would be free to decide whether they wish to partner,
when they wish to partner, and how they wish to partner.
Relationship to existing
university units
It is
desirable to ensure that CAPS is of the highest possible quality, so that its
programs will work to enhance Rutgers’ reputation and to complement existing
programs. The quality of CAPS will
begin with and will continue to be ensured by a high level of involvement from
current units, where that involvement is mutually beneficial. It is obviously of great benefit for CAPS to
be associated with Rutgers’ tradition of academic excellence; this association
should not be in name only.
In some cases, there may be an overlap between the
mission of CAPS and existing university units. Where these units are willing,
they and CAPS can work collaboratively to enhance both the current offerings of
the existing unit and CAPS’s off-campus and/or online offerings. In no case should CAPS disrupt the operation
of currently existing off-campus professional programs; rather, these programs
should be able, at their discretion, to make use of available resources that
emerge out of CAPS’s infrastructure.
CAPS will also work closely with the three University Colleges to
determine the ways in which the UCs’ adult students can benefit from CAPS’s
academic programs and distributed infrastructure.
Where CAPS identifies need for program
development in areas that are currently under the purview of an existing
academic unit, CAPS will work with that unit to determine how program
development might proceed and where the program will be located. The result may be that the existing unit is
able to draw on CAPS resources in the planning and roll-out of this new program
or vice versa, or the program may be developed in collaboration between CAPS
and the existing unit. If the existing
unit has no interest in imminent pursuit of the new program, CAPS would be
permitted to proceed with program development as agreed upon by CAPS and the
existing program.
We expect that new program development
will emerge out of discussions between the CAPS dean and other faculty deans.
Academic units with off-campus programs must be allowed to continue their outreach
programs without interference, although collaboration and partnerships should
be encouraged, seen as mutually beneficial opportunities by both CAPS and
existing units. In rare cases where
agreement cannot be reached, the University Vice President for Academic Affairs
will be called upon for resolution.
In general, the aim is to prevent
competition and encourage cooperation wherever it is of benefit to both CAPS
and the unit currently engaged in outreach programs. The goal is to provide the best possible quality of both
academics and student services to adult and continuing education students in
New Jersey.
Relationship between on campus students
and CAPS students
CAPS will consider for admission students who
have completed an associates degree or who can present completion of 60 credits
in good academic standing. Students
admitted to CAPS must have completed all lower division general education
requirements and pre-requisite courses. Most of these students will tend to be
adult, over 25, and currently employed.
Students applying to other RU collegiate units will not be offered
automatic admission into CAPS; students must affirmatively apply for admission
into CAPS just as they would for any other Rutgers unit.
If an on-campus Rutgers student wishes to
major in a CAPS program, that student will need to transfer from their current
school to CAPS. On-campus undergraduate
students will not be able to major in a CAPS program unless it is jointly offered
by CAPS and an on campus unit. Transfers from CAPS to an on-campus school would
require the same application review as any other transfer from one campus to another.
While CAPS courses will meet free elective credit, whether CAPS courses fulfill
on-campus major or collegiate general education (distribution) requirements
would be left entirely up to the faculty or fellows of the individual schools.
Initially CAPS will have programs,
not departments. Faculty appointed to a particular academic program (management
of justice systems, real estate and land development, etc.) will be responsible
for the academic oversight of that program. Each of four initial programs (management
of justice systems, internet technologies, real estate and land development,
and general professional studies) will have at least one senior full-time
faculty member budgeted during the planning year. This faculty member will serve as program director.
Recruitment
for these positions will occur shortly after approval of CAPS by the Board of Governors.
Personnel Selection Committees, consisting primarily of existing tenured
faculty, will be appointed and charged with the responsibility of recruitment
and selection of these program directors. Once selected these program directors
will, in turn, work with the dean and cognate faculty at the university to
recruit, and recommend for hire four additional full-time faculty (most likely,
one each in management of justice systems, real estate, and two in applied computing
and internet technologies).
Academic
oversight and quality control of individual major programs will be vested in
the program faculties. At the outset,
the CAPS Executive Board will determine the general education requirements for
each of the CAPS major programs. At
such time as CAPS has 20 full-time faculty, the establishment of collegiate
general education requirements will become the domain of the CAPS Faculty, with
consent of the Executive Board, not unreasonably withheld.
Program faculty are responsible for
the academic oversight of the major degree programs, adding, modifying, and
deleting of courses within their respective programs, monitoring quality and
standards, advising and certifying students, and all other issues related to
the successful delivery of baccalaureate and professional master degree
programs.
Faculty academic governance at the
college will be similar to other small-to-moderate sized faculties at the
University. Standing committees at the
college would include appropriate statutory bodies. These would include, among others, Curriculum and Instruction,
Appointments and Promotion, Admissions, Planning, and Library, Technology and
Instructional Resources. Again, existing tenured faculty would have opportunities,
where mutually agreed to, to participate in these committees.
Curricular Issues
Rutgers is
not in competition with the state’s community college system; we need to view
and cultivate those institutions as our partners in this enterprise, serving
the citizenry of New Jersey. Rutgers is in competition with every AAU sister
institution in the mid-Atlantic region, and for our distance learning efforts,
with every major provider in North America. That competition is severe, and if
we are to achieve a meaningful market share, the byword for everything we do
will have to be quality. We view the ‘top-end’ portion of the market as
our natural domain, and to ensure that we acquire and hold it, we must ensure
that each course offered is of the same quality as our on-campus offerings, not
necessarily interchangeable (these are different programs, after all), but of
the same quality, with the same rigorous standards. This will be ensured by
reviewing each course via an analogous administrative process to that used for
on-campus collegiate offerings (Program, CAPS, and Rutgers review), with
significant involvement by tenured faculty from existing Rutgers units.
To ensure
that the courses offered constitute a coherent curricular thrust, that there is
a clientele (in sufficient numbers to justify the investment), and a marketable
educational product, CAPS will follow the same processes as used by on-campus
units. In an arena where a misstep can be very expensive and hard to recoup,
the Marketing Specialist for CAPS is charged with doing the market research
that will ensure that programmatic investments are timely and on-target. Since
the entire enterprise has to be cost-effective, attention to the details will
probably be even closer than is routine on-campus, with even greater
sensitivity to instructional quality.
For those
programs that are normally reviewed for accreditation by regional or national
professional bodies, CAPS will aggressively seek formal certification. The idea
is to ensure that the students completing the program are fully credentialed
and have received top-end ‘professional value’ for their investment. The
essence of this strategy is simple: quality sells. The Rutgers logo must
continue to be synonymous with ‘quality’.
To ensure
continuous quality control, CAPS will entrain continuous monitoring of course
and instructor quality, by using the standard mechanisms (faculty peer review
and student evaluations) and the same quality standards as are used for
on-campus courses. Efforts will be aimed at continually improving all aspects
of service and instruction, with best practices integrated throughout the
collegiate culture. Ongoing quality
review will insure that changes will be made to what is not working well, while
high quality instruction will be rewarded.
Decisions will be made to jettison what is either no longer in demand or
working badly. If we offer a poor (or misdirected) product, our students will
drift away. These adults are
experienced learners; they will vote with their (sometimes electronic) feet.
They have elsewhere to go if we cannot or will not deliver a quality program.
Program Development and Approval
The development of initial
program proposals for CAPS will require the involvement of tenured and tenure-track
faculty from existing units. The
involvement of such faculty will not only ensure the quality of the programs
developed by CAPS, but will also prevent CAPS from working to develop programs
that are already in development by existing units. Current tenured faculty should be involved with the development
of academic programs from the concept level to the approval level. A key locus for the involvement of current
faculty will be the CAPS Executive Board, but it is also desirable to seek
additional collaboration from units in cognate disciplines to those in which
CAPS wishes to develop its programs.
New programs offered through CAPS will follow the standard Rutgers
procedures for approval.
Facilities
Instructional,
office and infrastructure space requirements will reach approximately 70,000
usable square feet by 2007.
Anticipating that CAPS will be successful in deploying programs
statewide, broad space infrastructure requirements would consist of the following:
Faculty
and Staff Offices 70 10,500 square feet
Instructional
classrooms 36 32,400 “ “
ITV
Classrooms 8 12,000 “
“
Computer
labs 8 12,000 “
“
Reception,
storage, utility, etc. 5 3,100 “ “
70,000 “
“
Consistent with the organizational principles of CAPS,
securing appropriate facilities will be accomplished through several
strategies: (1) through partnerships with community colleges, (2) through
leasing of strategically located space from private developers or institutions,
(3) use of appropriate university resources statewide where and when it may be
appropriate, (4) innovative reallocation of certain university facilities, and
(5) other appropriate strategies.
Initially,
CAPS administration and some of the faculty will be domiciled on the New
Brunswick Campus, being assigned sections of the University Inn and Conference
Center. The Inn and Conference Center,
in turn, would undergo a transition
that would allow it to focus primarily on residential guests, while its
existing conference rooms and classrooms would be redeployed for faculty and
staff offices. The University Inn
Annex, capable of housing as many as eight faculty, also would be available for
redeployment for this purpose by 2003.
Other faculty will be located in leased space.
Budgetary Issues
This proposal for a new, degree-granting collegiate unit
requires an investment in the human resource infrastructure necessary for the
efficient operation of a market-responsive unit. Initial operations, during the
planning year, will require a small staff of seven, including: the dean, a
marketing specialist, four program directors, and a secretarial assistant. This
plan enables the rapid deployment of CAPS, while allowing for the development
of programs, degrees, and faculty. Over the five-year development plan, CAPS
will develop its own support staff, utilizing the newest technology and
programming to provide client-friendly service,
in a cost-efficient manner. This
includes making extensive use of online/electronic capabilities that are
available through the University’s contract with eCollege.com and similar
vendors, promoting a single point of contact for the new college.
Essential academic support personnel and resources,
including library, computing, and the support of electronically mediated instruction,
will be budgeted as part of the CAPS tuition and fee structure. Every effort
has and will continue to be made to insure that essential services are built
into the CAPS business model.
Several
summaries of projected staffing requirements, cost of operations, and revenue
appear in Appendix C, and are summarized in the table below.
Successfully deploying CAPS will require a multi-year commitment that will in
fairly reasonable order begin to generate resources for redistribution
elsewhere throughout Rutgers.
The
CAPS business plan is based on leveraging these baseline resources, thereby
generating an equal number of ‘matching’ (and self-sustaining) positions by
2004. By 2007-2008, the development costs associated with CAPS will be
approximately $12 million less cumulatively than expansion of outreach efforts
through existing academic units. Further, we anticipate that every dollar of
baseline support will generate almost eight dollars of self-sustaining revenue,
an extraordinarily efficacious cost/benefit ratio.
Click
link below to view Tables: “Projected
CAPS Fiscal Development” and “Appendix A, Commission on Higher Education Survey
Results, Degree Completion Requests from Community Colleges”
http://senate.rutgers.edu/fiscal.html
University
College is one of the 13 different units in the University of Maryland system,
eleven of which are degree granting. University College has pursued its prime
mission for 50 years: to serve adult, part-time students, with high-quality
educational opportunities. Classrooms are found throughout Maryland, the
Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and at over 100 overseas locations.
Students also can "attend class" from anywhere in the world by
connecting electronically via the Internet. University College's online program
offers more than any other university in the world. Students can choose from
dozens of complete Bachelors and Masters programs, completely online, via the
university's own proprietary interactive classroom software.
University
College has an Executive Vice President, who reports to the Chancellor of the
University of Maryland System. The College has a Provost, who reports to the
Executive VP. The Deans of Undergraduate and Graduate studies, respectively,
report to the Provost. The University College has received partial state
support for approximately the last 5 years, this year receiving about $17
million. UMUC has 500 full-time faculty, on term contracts, mostly in Europe and
Asia. Many of the faculty also have administrative responsibilities. UMUC has
also implemented a staged track, from Instructor ® Asst. Professor ® Assoc.
Professor ® Professor.
University College offers BA
or BS degrees, with a primary specialization in one of 28 academic areas,
including 15 that are available entirely at-a-distance, and graduate degrees in
almost a dozen disciplines. UMUC has a highly regarded distance education suite
of programs that currently enroll over 6,300 students in over 23,000 course
registrations annually (or the equivalent of teaching all of our Camden undergraduates
via distance learning). These curricula, with convenient delivery formats and
innovative credit options, are promoted as ideal for adult, part-time students
who are looking for top-quality, practical education. Undergraduate degrees are
offered in the following areas:
Accounting Business and Management Related Fields - Areas of
Specialization
·
Accounting
·
Business and Management
·
Health Services Management
·
Hotel and Restaurant Management
·
Management (contemporary management theory and practice)
·
Management Studies (multi-disciplinary management principles)
·
Technology and Management
Behavioral, Social and Natural Sciences and Paralegal Studies - Areas of
Specialization
·
Behavioral and Social Sciences
·
Criminology/Criminal Justice
·
Economics
·
Environmental Management
·
Fire Science
·
Gerontology
·
Government and Politics
·
Microbiology
·
Psychology
·
Paralegal Studies
·
Sociology
·
Sociology/Anthropology
Communication, Arts and Humanities - Areas of
Specialization
·
Area Studies
·
Art
·
Communication Studies
·
English
·
History
·
Humanities
Computer and Mathematical Sciences - Areas of
Specialization
·
Computer Applications
·
Computer Science
·
Computer Studies
·
Computer and Information Science
·
Computer Information Technology
·
Information Systems Management
·
Mathematics
Established in 1978, the
Graduate School serves working adults throughout Maryland, the surrounding
region, and around the world. With more than 5,500 students and 215 faculty, it
is one of the largest schools of Applied Management and Technology in the
region. Ten graduate programs, at both the master's and doctoral level, are
offered, with a number of specialty tracks. Three executive programs and certificates
are offered at times and locations convenient to students. All programs, except
the doctorate and the executive programs, are offered online.
Masters Programs
UMUC now offers a Doctor of
Management degree program. The program leads to the degree of Doctor of
Management, with specializations in Technology and Information Systems,
Organizational Processes, or International Operations. In addition, the
following Masters level programs are offered:
·
MS in Biotechnology Studies
·
Master of Business Administration
·
MS in Computer Systems Management
·
MS in Electronic Commerce
·
MS in Environmental Management
·
MS in Information Technology Management
·
MS in Management
·
MA in Teaching
·
MS in Technology Management
·
MS in Telecommunication Management
·
Master of Distance Education
·
Master of Education
·
Master of International Management
·
Master of Software Engineering
Executive Masters Programs
·
Executive MBA
·
Executive MS in Information Technology
·
Executive MS in Technology Management
UMUC’s
experience in distance education spans more than a quarter century. Their
programs connect students to faculty, course-mates, and advisors through
today's communication technology, including online computer conferencing,
telephone conferencing, and e-mail.
Online Undergraduate Degree Programs: Students may pursue a Bachelors degree, with a
specialization in any of the following 15 academic areas:
·
Accounting
·
Behavioral and Social Sciences
·
Business and Management
·
Communication Studies
·
Computer and Information Science
·
Computer Studies
·
English
·
Environmental Management
·
Fire Science
·
History
·
Humanities
·
Information Systems Management
·
Management Studies
·
Paralegal Studies
·
Psychology
Online Graduate Degree Programs: University of Maryland University College (UMUC) is the
largest virtual university in the United States, in terms of enrolled students
and graduates. UMUC offers degree programs online through the World Wide Web,
using their proprietary system, WebTycho. Academic course content, texts,
requirements, assignments, and class participation are the same for online and
onsite courses. The following graduate degree programs are offered online, with
no residency requirement:
Master of Business Administration
·
Master of Business Administration
·
Dual Masters/MBA Degrees
MS in Management/MBA
MS in Technology Management/MBA
Master of International Management/MBA
MS in E-Commerce/MBA
·
Biotechnology Studies (pending approval)
·
Computer Systems Management, with specialty tracks in:
Applied Computer Systems
Database Systems and Security
Information Resources Management
Software Development Management
·
Electronic Commerce
·
Environmental Management
·
Information Technology
·
Management, with specialty tracks in:
Accounting
Financial Management
Health Care Administration
Human Resource Management
Interdisciplinary Studies in Management
Management Information Systems
Marketing
Not-for-Profit Management
Procurement and Contract Management
·
Technology Management, with specialty tracks in:
Biotechnology Management
Technology Systems Management
·
Telecommunications Management
Education and Teaching
·
Master
of Distance Education
·
Master
of Education
·
Master
of Arts in Teaching (pending approval)
Master of International Management (with specialty tracks in):
·
International Commerce
·
International Finance
·
International Marketing
SPSBE (formerly
the School of Continuing Studies) has successfully educated adult
part-time students for 90 years, and offers several undergraduate and graduate degree
programs, playing a leading role in responsive programming for adult students
in business, education, and the liberal arts. The term “professional studies”
was chosen to reflect a special commitment to individuals who seek to advance
their careers in business and education through part-time study.
Over half of Johns Hopkins students
are enrolled in part-time programs. The SPSBE is the largest in enrollment of
the eight Hopkins schools, with more than 4,700 students registered in courses
for credit. The school offers classes on the university's Homewood campus in
north Baltimore, and in off-campus centers in downtown Baltimore and
Washington, D.C., in Columbia, and near Rockville in Montgomery County. SPSBE
awards more graduate degrees in education than any other college in Maryland
and operates the nation’s ninth-largest business program for part-time
students, with 2,815 students enrolled last fall. Beginning in fall 1999,
graduate business students were able to earn an MBA, replacing the MS in Business
degree.
Programs are offered at the
undergraduate, graduate, and post-professional level, with innovative curricula
in areas such as real estate and police executive leadership. Partnerships with
the School of Medicine and School of Nursing enable SPSBE to offer programs
such as the Business of Medicine Graduate Certificate, as well as the combined
MBA/MS in Nursing.
Since the 1980s, part-time programs
in engineering and nursing have been transferred to autonomous schools in those
disciplines, re-established by the university in 1979 and 1984, respectively.
The Master of Liberal Arts program, created by the former School of Continuing
Studies in 1962, has become part of the growing part-time program in the
Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Business and Education, not taught
elsewhere in the university, remain part of
newly named SPSBE.
A new degree program, the Master of
Science in Organizational Counseling, is offered in collaboration with the
Department of Management in the Division of Business, SPSBE. This degree is
intended to provide training in the emerging, rather specialized field of
organizational counseling, which combines counseling theory and practice with
human resource expertise.
The School of Professional
Studies offers academic degrees in Business and Education, within three
divisions: Business and Management, Education, and Undergraduate Studies.
Degrees offered by the school include a Baccalaureate in Interdisciplinary
Studies, a Baccalaureate in Information Systems, both Bachelors and Master’s
degrees in Business and Management, and Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Education.
Division of
Business and Management
Johns Hopkins boasts the largest,
most comprehensive program of its kind in the Baltimore-Washington area. Designed
specifically for full-time professionals, engaged in part-time study, most
courses are taught by the region's leading business practitioners and Hopkins
faculty, and are offered six days a week. Both courses and a full range of
advising and career services are also available at the following locations:
·
The Homewood Campus (North Baltimore)
·
The Downtown Center in Baltimore
·
The Columbia Center (Howard County, Maryland)
·
The Montgomery County Center (Rockville, Maryland)
·
The Washington, D.C. Center
The Business program offers 7
graduate degrees, three of which we will describe in some detail, as a way of
illustrating how these extremely popular Hopkins programs are organized:
·
Master of Business Administration
·
Master of Science in Real Estate
·
Police Executive Leadership Program (PELP)
·
Master of Science in Marketing
·
Master of Science in Nursing/Business
·
Master of Science in Organization Development and Human Resources
·
Master of Science in Information and Telecommunication Systems
Master in Business Administration - The Hopkins
MBA (51 credits that must be completed in six years) contains five basic
elements:
· A pre-MBA
assessment ensures all students possess the necessary communication and
computing skills to succeed in the program.
· Five foundation
courses (which may be waived by students who have completed comparable
undergraduate or graduate work) provide the essential knowledge and practical
skills required of effective business leaders.
· Seven core
courses provide a comprehensive rigorous knowledge base for students as they
proceed through the program.
· Four electives
from a wide range of business & management topics or a concentration in a
specialized business field provides flexibility in customizing the path of
study.
· The capstone,
the MBA’s final course, promotes an integrative, in-depth business strategy by
grouping students in small teams to formulate solutions to business challenges
of selected regional organizations.
The MS in Real Estate is a 40-credit program
that provides students with a comprehensive understanding of real estate
investment, development, and management. The core curriculum integrates the
study of market analysis, law, design, construction, investment analysis, finance,
and land use regulation. Students may specialize in real estate development,
institutional real estate investment analysis, or in real estate appraisal.
The Johns
Hopkins MS in Real Estate is the Baltimore-Washington region’s only graduate
program for real estate and land use professionals. The curriculum offers
students several options, and the sequence of study is determined by individual
student needs and approval of an adviser. Students complete 13 courses,
including 10 core courses (30 credits), two track courses (6 credits), and a
final Practicum or Applied Research Project (4 credits). The requirements must
be completed within 5 years. With the approval of the program director, a
student may transfer a maximum of 6 graduate credits from an accredited college
or university. These courses must be directly applicable to the program and
taken within the 5-year time limit.
PELP is a 45-credit Master’s degree
program, which begins each September. This is a 2-year cohort program, leading to
a Hopkins MS in Management degree, with a concentration in Community
Development. The curriculum consists of 15 three-credit courses, covering areas
such as leadership, change management, building quality organizations,
management decision-making, ethics, and integrity. The content of the courses
is relevant and responsive, reflecting continuing changes within the community
and the police profession. Classroom activities are supplemented by field
trips, workshops and seminars, and special events to enhance the learning
experience. Program courses include:
·
Proseminar
(leadership style assessment)
·
Ethics
and Integrity
·
Leadership
and Organizational Behavior
·
Change
Management
·
Ethics
and Society
·
Managing
Differences
·
Building
Quality Organizations
·
Strategic
Planning: Problem Solving and Decision Making
·
Advanced
Leadership
·
Management
of Quality
·
Case
Studies in Leadership
·
Decision
Making for Leaders
·
Managing Information Systems and Networks
The Graduate
Division of Education offers various Masters degrees through 4 departments, in
addition to offering a Doctorate in Education, with concentrations in Special
Education, Counseling, and General Education. The Department of Counseling and
Human Services offers a MS in Counseling degree. The Special Education
Department offers programs leading to the MS in Special Education. The
Department of Technology in Education offers programs leading to MS degrees in
Education and in Technology in Special Education. The Department of Teacher Development and Leadership offers MS
degrees in Teaching and in Education.
The Division
offers several undergraduate degree programs. The BS in Business and Management
is a degree completion program that allows students to transfer up to 60
credits, taken elsewhere, toward the 120-credit total. The curriculum blends
theory with contemporary business practices, and incorporates an
interdisciplinary core.
Qualified students
also may apply for the Advancing Business Professionals Program (ABP Program),
which accelerates the completion of 48 upper-level credits toward the BS in
Business and Management. Tailored to the needs of adult students who want to
complete an undergraduate Business degree quickly, without sacrificing content
or quality, the ABP features a cohort-group format of four 10-week terms, while
allowing for 12 weeks of vacation per year.
The BS in
Information Systems is a 120-credit program, tailored to professionals in the
information systems field who are seeking to enhance their career prospects by
completing their undergraduate degrees. Students learn how to use the latest
computer and telecommunications technologies, while they develop strategies for
adjusting to rapidly changing technological environments. A maximum of 54
credits may be transferred from other programs.
The BS in
Interdisciplinary Studies is a 120-credit program that offers a solid
foundation in analytical, communications, and technological skills. Students
may major in Humanities, Social Sciences, or Communications, with a minor in
Business and Management. A maximum of 60 credits may be transferred from
elsewhere, and can be applied toward the degree.
The Accelerated
MA in Teaching (AMAT) is a program that enables qualified upper class
undergraduate Arts and Sciences majors to begin their Masters degree or Teacher
Certification programs, prior to completing their Bachelors degrees. The students who are accepted enter the
program after the completion of 75 undergraduate credits.
In addition to
the SPSBE, the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences offers degree programs for
part-time students. Masters degree programs are offered in Applied Economics,
Biotechnology, Develop-mental Psychology, Environmental Sciences, Government,
Liberal Arts, and Writing.
Penn State operates like a private institution, with a
public mission. Outreach and Cooperative Extension, which operates the Distance
Education program, receives approximately 17% of its budget in state funding
each year. There are approximately 50 faculty in O&CE, all of whom are on
term contracts. While the Board of Trustees sets in-state, resident tuition for
undergraduate and graduate (on-campus?) education, there are no restrictions on
setting tuition for other clienteles. For the O&CE, including Distance
Education, the President has delegated this responsibility to the Vice
President for O&CE.
O&CE
provides for a centralized infrastructure that reaches out to Penn State’s 23
regional campuses. This division offers a variety of credit and non-credit
courses and certificates. The only degree identified as being offered on the
main campus is the Master’s Degree in Counselor Education with a Chemical Dependency Counseling emphasis. The real strength in the
O&CE is in the non-credit arena, especially in conferences and symposia.
Penn
State promotes its new online initiative, the World Campus, as the 25th campus
in the Pennsylvania State University system. World Campus courses are developed
and taught by the same Penn State faculty members teaching
in “traditional” Penn State classrooms. The World Campus offers one Master of
Education in Adult Education as the only graduate degree offered online. In
addition, six post-Baccalaureate certificates are available online, through the
World Campus. Additional degree programs are anticipated shortly. The World Campus offers 5 undergraduate
certificate programs, as well as the following undergraduate degrees:
·
Dietetic Food Systems Management - Associate’s (AA or AAS?) Degree
(Health Care/Dietetic Technician emphasis)
· Dietetic Food
Systems Management Associate’s Degree (school food service emphasis)
· Hotel,
Restaurant, and Institutional Management - Associate’s Degree (AA or AAS?)
The other component of the Penn
State Distance Learning effort is the older Independent Learning program. The
Independent Learning program offers a collection of more than 150 individual
courses that can be taken for general interest or used to complete a degree or
certificate program. Students work one-on-one with their instructors at their
own pace and can register for courses at any time throughout the year. Though
some Independent Learning courses are enhanced
electronically, most are predominantly print based. One Baccalaureate degree is
offered in Letters, Arts and Sciences. Several Associate degrees and various
certificates are available through the Independent Learning program.
Founded in 1831, New York University is the largest private
(not-for-profit) university in the United States. The University, which includes
13 schools and colleges, occupies 5 major centers in Manhattan. NYU also
operates branch campus and research programs in other parts of the United
States, as well as study abroad programs in more than 20 countries.
The School of Continuing Education
at NYU was founded in 1934, as a separate School within the University. In
1998, the School changed its name to the School of Continuing &
Professional Studies, a name chosen, according to former Dean Gerald Heeger (not coincidentally, current President of UM
- UC), to reflect the School’s role as a career training ground for
professionals at all levels. The change is intended to represent the changing
role of education, from preparation in advance of a career, to a lifelong
commitment, carried through a range of careers. SCPS the leading and largest
private institution for adult education in the country, having annual
enrollments of approximately 65,000, with 7,500 students enrolled in degree
programs, providing more than 2,000 credit and non-credit courses in its
professional and degree programs. Like Penn State, the majority of the NYU SCPS
registrations are in non-degree programs, credit-bearing certificate programs,
and non-credit programs. The online courses, offered through the Virtual
College, are limited and make available only one online degree program. SCPS
does offer a small range of undergraduate degree programs:
·
BS programs in three different disciplines
Health Services
Policy and Planning
Real Estate, in
cooperation with the Real Estate Institute of SCPS
Communications Technologies,
preparing students for the new industries of the 21st century
SCPS
also offers a Bachelor of Arts degree, requiring 128 credits. Students enter
the BA program by transferring between 30 and 64 credits from other accredited
colleges or universities, either in the US or recognized international
institutions, by earning between 30 and 64 credits from another undergraduate
division of NYU, or by completing a minimum of 30 credits in the Associate in
Arts Program or the Associate in Applied Science Programs, or no more than 30
credits in the Educational Options Program in the Paul McGhee Division. The graduate degree programs include:
·
MS in Direct Marketing Communications
·
MS in Hospitality Industry Studies
·
MS in Tourism and Travel Management
·
MS in Management and Systems
·
Master of Science in Real Estate
·
MS in Publishing
Book Concentration
Magazine Concentration
Electronic
Concentration
SCPS,
through the Information Technologies Institute, offers one online graduate
program, a 36-credit MS in Management and Systems. This Masters program is
designed to prepare mid-career audit, systems and other professionals for
information management responsibilities within their own departments or
organizations.
SCPS
has always been an autonomous unit, with its own financial aid, admissions and
registrar offices, but all working closely with the admissions office for
traditional age students. SCPS is a “pay as you go” unit; they are charged for
facility usage, telephone, and operating costs. There is an indirect charge
that is added to everything as well, including outside rentals. There is even a
formula - based on usage - to support the library and central services.
SCPS
receives tremendous university support and a significant amount of up-front development
funding for new programs. Originally offering primarily non-credit programming,
they are now moving toward credit programs and industry-specific offerings. As
noted above, they now offer a small number of full credit degrees, both
undergraduate and graduate. Their credit programs are approved by Albany and
university faculty committees. The process takes at least one year for each new
degree offered.
SCPS
has several full-time people in each of these programs, as determined by need
and program success. They have a Program Director for each program area. Each
Director has an Associate/Assistant Director and other staff, as needed. SCPS
employs 1,300 teaching professionals, nearly all of whom are adjunct
instructors on term contracts, without benefits. The faculty costs within SCPS
are consequently “light,” compared with other units. For example, their program Masters in Real Estate began with one
full faculty member, and they now have 3 or 4. Their undergraduate programs
have a handful of full-time faculty, but most are adjuncts. SCPS has long-term
adjuncts who have been with them for 20 - 30 years. SCPS recognizes faculty
each year with outstanding faculty awards.
SCPS works with the
various schools of the university, but the Business School is apparently “less
of a player.” There are unwritten internal rules about respecting turf as well
as a “balance of trade” with the on-campus units. There are even formulae for
revenue sharing. Each school gets a piece of the revenue. While SCPS does not
offer a business degree, they offer related degrees, such as Behavior,
Organization & Communication, to appeal to the adult degree students. That
is, they offer business-related programs, without the business school.
They
have articulation agreements with community colleges, especially in the areas
of hospitality and sports. These tend to attract more traditional age students.
In summary, this
is a very successful, large, private, high-quality, fully staffed, totally
autonomous, degree-granting unit that is focused primarily on the
non-traditional student and industry-specific degree programs. They bring in significant dollars that supports the
more traditional segments of the university, so they are treated well because
of that.
SCPS
is the private operation par excellence.
Gross revenues exceed $95 million each year, with approximately $7-8 million
surplus, turned back to the central administration. In 1999, they had a banner year and the surplus was much bigger.
The budget is submitted in January for the following fiscal year; it must be
approved by the central university administration. According to one of their deans, they have budgeting, “down to a
science, with respect to income and expense ratios.” As a private institution,
SCPS has discretion in terms of its tuition and fees.
************************************
Appendix C
Preliminary Job Description
Dean
CAPS
RUTGERS,
THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY
COLLEGE
OF APPLIED AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES (CAPS)
POSITION
DESCRIPTION
Job
Title: Dean,
College of Applied and Professional Studies
Unit:
College of
Applied and Professional Studies
Reports
To: Vice
President for Continuous Education and Outreach
BASIC
FUNCTION
The
Dean of the College of Applied and Professional Studies is responsible for
providing leadership and direction to the academic mission of the College of
Applied and Professional Studies, a new unit at Rutgers, the State University
of New Jersey. The Dean will be expected to work with program directors,
fulltime faculty and adjunct faculty in maintaining excellence within the
academic programs. The Dean will be responsible for ensuring that the College
meets all appropriate accreditation standards.
RESPECTIVE
CHALLENGES
The
College of Applied and Professional Studies will be a fast-paced, high growth
work environment dedicated to nontraditional and innovative modalities of
distance learning. Moving with alacrity while ensuring academic excellence is a
must. The College of Applied and Professional Studies will be an important
element in the impact and success of Rutgers University in the years to come.
The Dean must be highly knowledgeable of the educational milieu, show forth an
understanding of adult education, and possess a knowledge base and passion for
innovative modalities of educational delivery. The challenge will be to develop
curriculum and faculty at a rapid pace while maintaining educational integrity
and excellence worthy of the Rutgers name. The job description is very
comprehensive, and we have listed preferred qualifications for
prospective candidates realizing that no one person may possess all of these
qualifications. The Dean works under the direction and guidance of the Vice
President for Continuous Education and Outreach.
SPECIFIC
RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES
·
Provide academic leadership to fulltime and
adjunct faculty members within the College of Applied and Professional Studies.
·
Be
responsible for the development and implementation of new courses and degree
program curricula. Ensure steady and rapid progression of course development.
·
Ensure
that the courses created for CAPS maintain academic excellence.
·
Institute
and oversee quality assurance and assessment procedures for all academic
programs and courses within CAPS with particular emphasis placed upon ensuring
that course content and design are appropriate to the medium being utilized,
that CAPS’s academic procedures are of the highest quality, and that RU-CAP’S
is in compliance with Middles States Commission of Higher Education guidelines.
·
This
position is responsible for the recruiting, securing, developing and evaluating
of all adjunct and fulltime faculty serving the College of Applied and
Professional Studies.
·
Monitor CAPS’s relationship with the Middles
States Commission on Higher Education, accreditation guidelines, issues, etc.
·
Assist
in program accreditation applications, reviews and reports.
·
Hear
and process matters and concerns initiated by individual students relating to
the academic program in a prompt and appropriate manner.
·
Be
a supporting member of the faculty committee for the College of Applied and
Professional Studies.
·
Work
in concert with appropriate university personnel in the development of grant
proposals, business plans, etc., in seeking external support for the College of
Applied and Professional Studies.
·
Exercise
solid fiscal management of RU-CAP’s academic program budgets for faculty, curriculum
development and instruction under the direction of the Vice President for Continuous
Education and Outreach.
·
Be
actively involved in academic advising of current students and recruiting of
potential students.
·
Be
responsible for academic statistics such as retention rate, course completion
rate, etc.
·
Foster
relationships with alumni, community, businesses, and other outside
agencies/organizations and marketing the courses and programs.
·
Oversee
academic staff reporting to the Dean.
·
Carry
out other assignments as directed by the Vice President for Continuous
Education and Outreach.
UNDERSTANDINGS
·
This
is a non-tenure track, twelve-month, administrative position that carries with
it faculty status and rank.
·
This
is a new position within the University that is expected to help ensure success
in CAPS’s academic endeavors and programs.
·
The
College of Applied and Professional Studies must work to bring about rapid
change in what has been a highly traditional research university. This must be
done with a total university perspective and excellent working relationships
with faculty and deans throughout the university.
PREFERRED
QUALIFICATIONS
·
An
earned academic doctorate from a regionally accredited university.
·
An
innovator in the initiation, development, and implementation of innovative delivery
systems and instructional programs particularly within a distance/distributive
learning technology environment.
·
A
record of successful college level teaching is desired, particularly teaching
experiences using academic technology and innovative methodologies.
·
Knowledge
of higher education issues and trends, particularly as they concern adult
education and distance learning.
·
Familiarity
and experience with regional accreditation standards and procedures.
·
Demonstrated
leadership in academic and community affairs and the ability to develop and
maintain good working relationships with faculty, staff, and administrators in
a variety of areas.
·
Experience
as an academic administrator including planning, budget management, and
supervision of staff.
·
Experience,
familiarity, or willingness to work with Prior Learning Assessment.
·
Ability
to represent CAPS to various constituencies.
·
Ability
to attract external support.
·
Ability
to work and collaborate with others.
********************************
Appendix D
Financial Summaries
Click the links below to view
the indicated Financial Summaries:
Delivery of CAPS Mission through
Traditional Units
[1] Life Long Learning Trends, A Profile
of Continuing Higher Education.
National University Continuing Education Association. 4th edition, April 1996.
[2] Fischetti, Mark, et. al., Education? University
Business, pp. 45-51.
[3] Several documented cases with significant New
Jersey enrollments include: Colorado State University (MBA, est. NJ enrollment
400); Ball State University (MBA, est. NJ enrollment 350); and the University
of Delaware (several programs including Hotel Management, 350).
