The trend of Graduate Certificate Programs is quite fascinating in higher education. I often wonder how much Graduate Certificate Programs are respected in the professional world. However, in a time when our professions are required to be well versed in many different areas (a trend that often uses the phrase "wearing different hats", these Graduate Certificate Programs can further accelerate a person's career in their current work or even help them change careers.
One trend that I don't think is being acknowledged is that, these programs can be quite specific. For example Lenoir - Rhyne University offers a Public Service Chaplain certificate, a Narrative Medicine program (which Logan addressed in his previous blog post) but when you think about these programs, they appeal to a very specific demographic. I found a video on a specific field that I honestly didn't think it would have existed. The university that is offering this program is McGill University in Canada.
Another consideration that needs to be made is why a university is offering their Graduate Certificate Program. For example, McGill University offers the Driving Rehabilitation Program because it pairs well with their Occupational Therapy school (maybe this will be the future of LR's OT program?). Lenoir - Rhyne University offers their chaplaincy program because it pairs well with their school of theology. Mostly, a University is offering a program because their is a need in the community. The profession is calling for "cross-fertilization" of a professionals skill set and future talents that they need to learn to better their career and performance (McFadden et al, 2011). Expanding on the idea of addressing the needs of the community, these university's are really trying to bring in other areas of revenue. For example, Lenoir - Rhyne's programs are offered at a different rate than a degree program. The Graduate Certificate Program can be viewed as an area of extra revenue like a non-degree earning student, who pays considerably more for tuition than a full-time enrolled student in some programs.
McFadden, K. L., Chen, S., Munroe, D. J., Naftzger, J. R., & Selinger, E. M. (2011). Creating an Innovative Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate Program.Innovative Higher Education, 36(3), 161-176
McGill University. (2015, May 7). McGill Graduate Certificate Driving Rehabilitation. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLoQ2DSuPyk
Kohl,
ReplyDeleteWhen designing an academic degree, we are required to demonstrate a workplace need (i.,e, are there jobs for those who graduate with this degree?), and at other institutions, I have had to provide predictions of the numbers of leaders expected to retire over the next 10 years.
Certificate programs tend to grow from a specific business/industry/organization need.....For example, CC presidents had requested an online CC teaching certificate rather than a full master's program...so I suppose the reasoning behind a certificate differs from that of a degree.
It would be interesting to discover the history behind the Public Service Chaplain certificate.........