During the Arizona Board of Regent’s Feb. 8 meeting, the University of Arizona asked the regents to review and approve a number of new academic programs for next academic year as well as eliminate the UA’s College of Letters, Arts and Science and Outreach College.
In order to ensure all students attending one of Arizona’s three public universities graduates with a useful degree, the regents asked the UA to provide ample justification for any new programs.
“How will students benefit from this degree?”
The regents also ask that new programs show a unique niche to fill and outline a plan to ensure students walk away from the program with a demonstrable set of skills.
The UA asked the regents to approve three new Bachelor of Arts and five new Bachelors of Science programs with focuses ranging from nutrition and data science to education for the deaf.
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New Undergraduate Programs:
Bachelor of Arts in Applied Humanities
Bachelor of Arts in Food Studies
Bachelor of Arts in Statistics and Data Science
Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Food Systems
Bachelor of Science in Education in Deaf Studies
Bachelor of Science in Education in Rehabilitation Studies and Services
Bachelor of Science in Statistics and Data Science
Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Food Systems (will include a program fee)
All of these programs will be offered during the UA’s 2018-2019 catalog year with the approval of the regents.
In addition, four new master’s programs and a doctoral program will be created, focusing primarily on healthcare and business. With these new additions, the UA asked the regents to end their Natural Science for Teachers Master of Science Program due to low enrollment.
New Graduate Programs:
Ph.D. in Applied Ethnomusicology and Intercultural Arts Research
Master’s of Business Analytics (will include a program fee)
Master’s of Medical Studies
Master’s of Science in Business Analytics
Master’s in Healthcare Management
The UA has also asked for the regents’ permission to dissolve its Outreach College and College of Letters, Arts and Science.
“This umbrella college (College of Letters, Arts and Science) was designed to contain the four separate colleges, but also to maintain branding and donor bases that were already deeply established, the individual colleges would remain intact,” the UA’s request form read.
Current students will receive interdisciplinary degrees and will not be affected.
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All undecided majors will now be clustered in meta-majors with specific advisors. Once students select a major, they will be transferred to the appropriate program advisors.
“This will provide deeper connections between the student and the advisor and allow more focused major exploration programing for undecided students,” UA’s request read.
Since 2009, the Associate Dean in Humanities, currently Kimberly Jones, oversees the college. A new administrator in the currently unfilled Provost’s office will be hired to oversee the new advising unit.
As for the Outreach College, its role has been incorporated into other aspects of the university.
“The functions of the Outreach College have transitioned to the UA Online and the Distance Campus administered under Academic Initiatives and Student Success in the Office of the Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management and reporting to the Provost,” UA’s request form reads.
With the regents’ approval, students will start seeing these changes take effect in the 2018-2019 academic school year. By that time, UA will be brainstorming a new set of programs to compete for students educational dreams.
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