The UMW Board of Visitors voted in February to add five degree programs at the College of Graduate and Professional Studies. These include:
• A Master of Business Administration program in public administration will prepare students to work in public and nonprofit administration. Scheduled to begin in the fall of 2006, it will be the ninth MBA area at CGPS.
• A Bachelor of Professional Studies program in interdisciplinary studies, the sixth BPS area to be offered at the Stafford campus, will allow students to tailor a concentration to meet professional and personal needs. This, too, is set to begin in the fall of 2006. BPS is intended for adults seeking to finish a bachelor’s degree.
• A Master of Education in literacy specialist program will be CGPS’s sixth M.Ed. area of study for licensed, practicing teachers. This program, scheduled to begin in the spring of 2007, will lead to the reading specialist endorsement and a master of education or a postmaster’s certificate. It will prepare educators for reading specialist jobs and to become literacy leaders.
• A Master of Science in Management Information Systems will provide technical and managerial knowledge and skills to prepare individuals for careers as managers of complex information systems and computing resources. If approved by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, this program will begin in the spring of 2007.
• An MBA-MSMIS dual degree will allow students to explore careers in two distinct fields so they will gain technical skills as well as management and leadership knowledge. If approved by SCHEV, this, too, will begin in the spring of 2007.
Also, CGPS offers the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program via on-site videoconferencing. Students come to the Stafford campus to watch live broadcasts of courses taught at the University of Virginia and the state’s four other large engineering schools. Two-way video and audio communication via high-speed lines allows CGPS students to interact with professors and students in remote classrooms.
The main goal of the program is to provide practicing engineers and scientists a convenient, part-time way to pursue master’s degrees and certificates in various engineering disciplines or to update their skills as part of non degree continuing education.