Masters in higher education

Discussion in 'Education, Teaching and related degrees' started by warguns, Jun 19, 2019.

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  1. warguns

    warguns Member

    For a friend, I'm looking for an online master's degree in HIGHER EDUCATION. Potential student is California resident. Should be from school with B&M existence. Ideally, it will satisfy all three criteria: good, cheap, fast.

    TIA
     
  2. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    Any particular area of interest or career goal? Master's in higher ed seem to break into two large clusters, one in general higher ed and administration, the other in student affairs (aka student personnel services, student development, etc.) Beyond this there's a long list of lower-incidence niches each of which have a master's title or track in higher ed available somewhere, including college teaching, college athletics, health professions ed, academic advising, college student counseling, disability services, international higher ed, instructional design, assessment, compliance, enrollment management, campus public safety…
     
  3. warguns

    warguns Member

     
  4. warguns

    warguns Member

    Thank you for your thoughtful reply. My friend now works as a career counselor (student services) and has an MAin counseling. But he's thinking about the future when he might choose to cross over to the dark side and become an administrator. So, I think that would be his interest in this masters.
     
  5. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    That's a master's in a related area, closely related I think. As an experienced higher ed professional with a closely related master's, I'm skeptical how much incremental value a second master's, but in higher ed specifically would add to his hirability as an administrator. If I were in his shoes, I'd be looking more at either levelling up – could be to a doctorate, could be to an EdS, CAGS, or post-master's certificate potentially stackable toward a doctorate – or at developing a lateral focused competency tailored to an administrative role of interest. The competency could be specific to higher education such as evaluation and measurement for regulatory and accreditation compliance, or it could draw more on general management skills like HR or contract and grant administration.
     
    SteveFoerster likes this.
  6. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Having actually worked in student services at more than one university, I agree completely with this. In particular, there's demand for people who have the statistics chops to do assessment.
     
  7. warguns

    warguns Member

    I appreciate these very thoughtful replies. My friend eventually wants a doctorate in higher ed and he lives near UCLA. But he's a newly-wed and thought he might take a distance course a semester so he can stay at home. UCLA does not offer a distance masters or doctorate in higher ed.
     
  8. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    Are you sure he needs another degree?
    He's already working in the job that would be a typical target career for people doing an MA in Higher Ed and hoping for a student services job. CC's love to promote from within the ranks- he should just start aiming higher. If necessary, he could jump to a different campus or district office (if his CC system has one) but I'd encourage him to start promoting instead of returning to college. If it were me, I'd also have my sights on a dean position, which is easier to do with a doctorate in higher ed - not a masters. I think the masters is redundant.

    EDIT to add, he is probably well qualified to head other departments as well - have him look at the adult education / support services / etc. as well. There are a lot of opportunities to cross over and or up.
     
  9. warguns

    warguns Member

    His goal is a doctorate in higher education and views the online masters as a step toward that. For his goal to become a powerful and wicked administrator, he believes that the higher ed route is better than counseling doctorate especially to aquire that quantitative skills noted by another poster.

    Ideally, he would start a master's where he would get his doctorate but the doctoral school of choice UCLA, has no distance option.

    As a newly-wed, he would just want to take one or two distance courses to keep busy. Courses that would transfer to his PhD program

    So I suggested NM State. Other suggestions?
     
  10. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    I think it's rare for doctoral programs in higher education to expect a prior master's in higher education specifically, and I also think it's rare that he'd be hit with significant master's-level make-up work assigned because his current master's is out-of-field.

    It sounds like he'd be a competitive applicant to a quality doctoral program in higher education with the education, experience, and career interest he has today.

    If he starts by taking master's-level courses despite already having a master's degree, there's a good chance they won't reduce the total number of courses in his shortest path to completion of the doctorate. He should look for courses above the master's level: Perhaps in an EdS, CAGS, or post-master's certificate. Perhaps courses from a doctoral program that'll let him start off on an ad hoc per-course basis. Or perhaps he could start right in on the doctorate.
     
  11. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    NMSU's education department is far left even by today's standards in academia. If that's his thing, he'll love it. If not... well....
     
  12. warguns

    warguns Member

    Is that so? I don't know if he would object but I appreciate the opinion to pass on to him.
     

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