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    Apr 19, 2024  
2020-2021 Graduate Catalog 
    
2020-2021 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Higher Education Administration, Ed.S.


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Requirements


The higher education administration program prepares students for positions in four-year, community and technical colleges, and universities. Students interested in careers as future higher education administrators receive a comprehensive program of study that explores academic, student, and administrative affairs. Courses offered in the program develop knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for success in higher education administration.

Goals and Objectives

The vision and values are instilled through the following principles:

  1. Effective institutional leaders will demonstrate knowledge of higher education history and foundations.
  2. Effective institutional leaders will understand legal and ethical issues related to higher education.
  3. Effective institutional leaders will understand the role and importance of curriculum in students’ lives.
  4. Effective institutional leaders will analyze current trends in higher education and understand how it might impact their institutions, faculty, staff, and students.
  5. Effective institutional leaders will understand finance and budgeting, and how to maintain financially solvent institutions.
  6. Effective leaders will understand the importance of the role of the two-year colleges in higher education.

Admission Requirements

Students can be admitted to the specialist in higher education administration program each term if the student meets the admission requirements. No students will be admitted on a provisional or probationary basis. Students may transfer up to nine hours of course credit from a regionally accredited institution that have not been used toward a previous degree. The transfer course work must be relevant, comparable, and possess content and instructional rigor equivalent to that offered by WCU’s higher education administration program and approved by the program coordinator and dean of education. Only credits earned with grades of B or higher and no more than six years old at the time of admission may be transferred from another institution into the higher education administration program.

To fulfill requirements for admission to the specialist in higher education administration degree program, the student must:

  1. Meet the university’s general requirements for graduate admission.
  2. Hold (or qualify to hold) a master’s degree from an institution fully accredited by a recognized accrediting agency.
  3. Present evidence of acceptable scholarship with an average of at least 3.00 on previous master’s degree work.
  4. Complete and file with the graduate admissions’ office the proper application for admission to graduate school.
  5. Complete the interview and writing components of the admission process.

Potential students will hold or qualify to hold a master’s degree from an institution fully accredited by a recognized accrediting agency. Potential students will also submit official transcripts for undergraduate and/or graduate work, and will provide two letters of recommendation. A weight system will be used when examining the submitted information. A committee will examine the above listed information and make acceptance decisions after an evaluation of the information from all potential students who have made application for the program.

Course Requirements


The academic requirements for a specialist in the higher education administration degree are the 36-hour program outlined below, successful completion of a research component, and the completion of the action research project. Students must successfully complete and present findings of the field research project to a committee. Students must earn at least a 3.0 G.P.A. to graduate.

Total: 36 hours


Cognate Content Area (Optional - 9 hours)


Students in the higher education administration specialist program may elect to take an additional nine hours of discipline-specific courses for the purpose of content credentialing. The student will select three courses with the approval of his/her advisor. All courses must be at the 600 or higher level.

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