Doctoral Learning Outcomes

The Program in Higher Education supports the College of Education's mission to improve education and promote human development by providing experiences that enhance students' understanding of higher education and that encourage their scholarly curiosity. The Program in Higher Education offers two doctoral degrees:

Ed.D. degree is to develop college and university administrators and community college faculty members with strong action oriented research skills and extensive training in leadership and management.

Ph.D. degree is to develop faculty members, institutional researchers, and policy analysts who can advance the field of higher education through scholarly works. The flexibility of the Ph.D. program also allows students to have extensive training in leadership, management, and a minor field.

The program offers quality academic training through diverse perspectives that challenge the student's intellect and creativity by integrating knowledge, professional competence, experience, and innovation into a program of study that develops researchers and practitioners who will be critical thinkers and effective leaders in the 21st century institutions of higher education.

The faculty in the Program of Higher Education expects all doctoral students to develop knowledge and competence in these areas by the time they graduate:

1. Higher Education Systems

   1. Develop an understanding of higher education history sufficient to critically analyze contemporary conditions and practice (institutions, governance, policy/politics, faculty, students, & curriculum) in terms of social, economic, and political conditions from which higher education in the United States has evolved.

   2. Critically assess the complex issues and current trends in higher education based on historical connections of the current context and practice of higher education in the United States and draw conclusions about the implications of these for the future.

   3. Compare and discriminate between theories of leadership and administration which apply to higher education institutions.

   4. Compare and contrast the conditions under which assessment, evaluation, and institutional effectiveness theories and models can be applied.

2. Higher Education Principles and Practices

   1. Interpret fiscal principles, legal standards, and information technology to effectively manage organizational units and institutions.

   2. Assess the value of theories and principles which guide the development and function of organizational culture and human relations in higher education organizations.

   3. Critically analyze the research literature and synthesize for practice in these areas:

      1. Student demographics and cultures

      2. Student development theory

      3. College experience

      4. Student attitudes and values

      5. Access, retention, success.

   4. Assess curricula trends, issues, and problems to understand and improve teaching and learning.

   5. Synthesize and integrate theories of instruction and learning to research, assess, create, implement, and improve instructional outcomes.

   6. Critically analyze and assess the conditions of the professoriate in postsecondary institutions to plan actions to improve the development and performance of the faculty.

   7. Analyze theories and models of assessment, evaluation, and institutional effectiveness.

   8. Evaluate current needs for assessment, evaluation, or institutional effectiveness in an institution of higher education or in some component of an institution.

3. Research & Field Experience

   1. Critique the research literature in higher education in terms of the quality of its theoretical soundness, research methods, data analysis, and conclusions.

   2. Integrate major higher education problems and issues through a synthesis of the research literature.

   3. Demonstrate the ability to select, design, execute and report theoretically based qualitative and/or quantitative research that meets standards stipulated by education research professional organizations.

   4. Conduct higher education research that can be submitted for publication or presented at a professional conference.

4. Role of Scholar, Researcher & Professional

   1. Develop a working knowledge of the philosophies and theories of higher education. Draw conclusions about how these philosophies and theories direct policy and practice, administration, instruction and learning, research, and institutional types historically, in the present, and potentially in the future.

   2. Apply critical and reflective thinking to develop a personal statement of ethics to guide one's professional practice and career.

   3. Develop and articulate a personal philosophy of higher education.

   4. Apply ethnical thinking and adhere to ethical guidelines as stipulated by higher education professional associations.

   5. Articulate and promote the role of higher education in service to the public good.

   6. Understand and promote the pluralism of cultural values and diversity of thought in higher education scholarship and practice.