Master of Science in Higher Education
Master of Science: 45.0 quarter credits
About the Program
The MS in Higher Education program is designed specifically to prepare highly skilled and knowledgeable practitioners for administrative and management careers in higher education in the United States and abroad. Graduates will be qualified to pursue careers as professionals in university and college offices as well as careers in national and international organizations, foundations, associations, and corporations.
Program Objectives
Students graduating with an MS in Higher Education will possess outstanding leadership, organizational, interpersonal and advocacy skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with internal and external groups. Students will be provided with in-depth knowledge regarding both public and private (non-profit and for-profit) institutions, as well as small and large institutions and multi-campus institutions.
About the Curriculum
The curriculum incorporates an interdisciplinary approach, with courses offered through the School of Education and The LeBow College of Business. The program integrates leading learning strategies and instructional technologies into the course delivery. Courses introduce students to best practices, current research, software applications and database management systems. Students demonstrate knowledge and skills through both individual and group projects.
This program is 45.0 credits and consists of 14 courses: 6 core courses, 4 primary concentration courses, 3 elective courses or secondary concentration courses, and 1 capstone course (co-op with portfolio).
Primary concentration areas include:
- administration and organizational management
Secondary areas of concentration include:
- academic development, technology and instruction
- community college administration and leadership
- enrollment management
- financial management in higher education
- institutional advancement
- institutional research and planning
- student development and affairs
The program is designed as a part-time cohort model, and can be completed in two years.
Additional Information
For additional information, visit Drexel University's Higher Education, Administration and Leadership page.
Admission Requirements
Applicants for the program will follow the university standards for admission to graduate study. In addition, the admissions committee will evaluate the applicant's potential and commitment to succeed in graduate study in higher education and at least one of the two program delivery formats. The applicant's potential to contribute to the overall quality of the program of study will also be considered.
Prospective students are required to submit the following:
- Completed Application Form
- Transcripts (must be provided for every institution attended)
- Referrals (two letters are required)
- Personal Essay
Prospective students must apply through Drexel Online using the online application. Additional information about how to apply is available on the Graduate Admissions at Drexel University website.
Degree Requirements
This Master of Science in Higher Education program consists of 14 courses: 6 core courses, 4 primary concentration courses, 3 elective courses or secondary concentration courses, and 1 capstone course (co-op with portfolio).
| Core Courses | ||
| EDHE 500 | Foundations of Higher Education | 3.0 |
| EDHE 510 | Governance, Management & Administration in Higher Education | 3.0 |
| EDHE 520 | Student Development & Customer Service Management | 3.0 |
| EDHE 530 | Higher Education Law | 3.0 |
| EDHE 602 | Managing Campus Operations | 3.0 |
| EDHE 714 | Introduction to Research Methods | 3.0 |
| Capstone | ||
| EDHE 715 | Higher Education Co-op I with Portfolio | 1.5 |
| EDHE 716 | Higher Education Co-op II | 4.5 |
| Primary Concentration | ||
| Students complete the four required courses for the primary concentration: | ||
| EDHE 540 | Outcomes, Assessments & Continuous Improvement | 3.0 |
| EDHE 601 | Strategic Planning & Evaluation | 3.0 |
| EDHE 606 | Higher Education Career Development | 3.0 |
| ORGB 631 | Leading Effective Organizations | 3.0 |
| Electives or Secondary Concentration (See Below) | 9.0 | |
| Students select either any three elective courses (from offerings within the School of Education) or three courses within the secondary concentrations offered. Courses within a student’s primary concentration do not count as electives. | ||
| Total Credits | 45.0 | |
Electives or Secondary Concentration
| Secondary Concentration in Adult Education | ||
| Select three of the following: | ||
| EDAE 601 | Foundations of Adult Education | 3.0 |
| EDAE 602 | Adult Learning and Development | 3.0 |
| EDAE 603 | Program Planning: Assessment & Evaluation of Adult Education | 3.0 |
| EDAE 604 | Instructional Design and Delivery Strategies | 3.0 |
| EDAE 605 | Instructional Skills for Teaching Adults Online | 3.0 |
| Secondary Concentration in Global and International Education | ||
| Select three of the following: | ||
| EDGI 500 | Introduction to Global, International & Comparative Education | 3.0 |
| EDGI 506 | Comparative Higher Education Systems | 3.0 |
| EDGI 508 | Understanding Research in International & Comparative Education | 3.0 |
| EDGI 510 | Culture, Society & Education in Comparative Perspective | 3.0 |
| EDGI 512 | Globalization and Educational Change | 3.0 |
| Secondary Concentration in Higher Education Educational Policy | ||
| Required | ||
| EDPO 620 | Education Policy: Concepts, Issues, and Applications | 3.0 |
| Select two of the following: | ||
| EDPO 624 | Shaping of American Education Policy: Global Forces | 3.0 |
| EDPO 632 | Ethics in Educational Policy Making * | 3.0 |
| EDPO 636 | Access & Equity in Educational Policy Making | 3.0 |
| EDPO 640 | Educational Policy-Making Tactics & Influence | 3.0 |
| Secondary Concentration in Community College Administration and Leadership | ||
| Select three of the following: | ||
| EDHE 634 | Proposal Writing & Sponsored Project Management | 3.0 |
| EDHE 664 | Strategies for Educational Success | 3.0 |
| EDHE 668 | Transformational Leadership | 3.0 |
| EDHE 669 | Diversity in Higher Education | 3.0 |
| Secondary Concentration in Institutional Development and University Relations | ||
| Select three of the following: | ||
| EDHE 610 | Institutional Advancement | 3.0 |
| EDHE 614 | Alumni Relations | 3.0 |
| EDHE 616 | Institutional Communications, Marketing & Public Relations | 3.0 |
| AADM 650 | Fund Development for the Arts | 3.0 |
| Secondary Concentration in Financial Management | ||
| Select three of the following: | ||
| BUSN 501 | Measuring and Maximizing Financial Performance | 3.0 |
| EDHE 602 | Managing Campus Operations | 3.0 |
| EDHE 624 | Capital Financing, Business Development & Asset Management | 3.0 |
| EDHE 626 | Public-Private Funding and Legal Issues | 3.0 |
| Secondary Concentration in Institutional Research | ||
| Select three of the following: | ||
| EDHE 640 | Foundations of Institutional Research | 3.0 |
| EDHE 644 | Student Assessments & Academic Program Evaluation | 3.0 |
| EDHE 646 | Survey Tools, Statistical Software & Effective Reporting | 3.0 |
| EDHE 680 | Foundations of Evaluation | 3.0 |
| EDUC 803 | Educational Research Design I | 3.0 |
| Secondary Concentration in Enrollment Management | ||
| Select three of the following: | ||
| EDHE 650 | Introduction to Enrollment Management | 3.0 |
| EDHE 652 | Enrollment Marketing, Recruitment & Retention | 3.0 |
| EDHE 654 | Financial Aid & Enrollment Management | 3.0 |
| EDHE 656 | Enrollment Management Database Systems & Management | 3.0 |
| Secondary Concentration in Learning Technologies and Instructional Design | ||
| Select 3 of the following: | ||
| EDLT 536 | Learning Sciences and Instructional Design | 3.0 |
| EDLT 537 | Technologies for Performance Support | 3.0 |
| EDLT 550 | Introduction to Instructional Design | 3.0 |
| ELL 502 | E-Learning Technologies | 3.0 |
| ELL 504 | Learning Technologies & Disabilities | 3.0 |
| Secondary Concentration in Student Development and Affairs | ||
| Select three of the following: | ||
| EDHE 652 | Enrollment Marketing, Recruitment & Retention | 3.0 |
| EDHE 662 | Critical Issues in Student Affairs | 3.0 |
| EDHE 663 | Safety and Crisis Management | 3.0 |
| EDHE 664 | Strategies for Educational Success | 3.0 |
| EDHE 669 | Diversity in Higher Education | 3.0 |
| * | If students have completed EDPO 632 as part of the primary concentration, it may not be used for the secondary concentration. In this case, students must select another EDPO course from the list. |
Education Faculty
Jennifer Adams, EdD (Harvard University). Associate Professor. Global and International Education
Kristen Betts, EdD (George Washington University). Clinical Professor. Higher education administration and governance, online blended education, instructional design and technology, program assessment and evaluation.
W. Edward Bureau, PhD (University of Pennsylvania) Site Director of the Sacramento EdD program. Associate Clinical Professor. Leadership, supervision, and capacity development.
Jamie Callahan, EdD (George Washington University) Program Director of the Human Resource Development. Clinical Professor. Leadership; Sociological explorations of emotions occurring in organizational contexts; Organizational development; Contextual issues confronting organizations, such as organizational learning, organizational culture, and communities of practice.
Holly Carpenter, PhD (Arizona State University). Assistant Clinical Professor. Higher education policy development and implementation, community college/university articulation, and online education.
José Luis Chávez, EdD (University of Southern California). Clinical Professor. Higher education leadership and administration.
Rebecca Clothey, PhD (University of Pittsburgh). Assistant Professor. Comparative and international education, education of ethnic and linguistic minorities, sociology of education.
James E. Connell, Jr., PhD, NCSP, BCBA-D (Louisiana State University) Clinical Director and Research Fellow, A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. Associate Professor. Identifying the variables that influence adult behavior change in community settings.
D. Brent Edwards, PhD (University of Maryland). Assistant Clinical Professor. Global and international education.
Salvatore V. Falletta, EdD (North Carolina State University). Associate Clinical Professor. Human Resource intelligence (i.e., HR research and analytics practices); HRD assessment, measurement, and evaluation models and taxonomies; organizational diagnostic models; web-based employee and organizational survey methods, and computational modeling.
Aroutis N. Foster, PhD (Michigan State University). Assistant Professor. Educational psychology and educational technology, especially the following: Motivation; Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK); Immersive Interactive Digital Environments (simulation, games, virtual realities).
Timothy Fukawa-Connelly, PhD (University of Maryland). Assistant Professor. Mathematics education, mathematical concepts, proof, proof presentation, statistics education.
Kathy D. Geller, PhD (Fielding Graduate University). Assistant Clinical Professor. Educational leadership and management; Transformational leadership; Adult learning; Career development; Organizational effectiveness; Change management.
Rajashi Ghosh, PhD (University of Louisville, Kentucky). Assistant Professor. Mentoring and leader development, workplace Incivility, workplace learning and development.
Rod P. Githens, PhD (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Associate Clinical Professor. Increasing access to self-sustaining careers through workforce development; Online education.
Roger Geertz Gonzalez, PhD (The Pennsylvania State University). Associate Clinical Professor. Civic Engagement, college student identity development, indigenous higher education, comparative higher education access policies.
John M. Gould, PhD (University of Pittsburgh). Associate Clinical Professor. Change leadership, curriculum re-design, the impact of technology on learning.
Allen C. Grant, PhD (Louisiana State University) Program Director of Educational Administration Program and Site Director of Philadelphia and Online EdD Program. Assistant Clinical Professor. K-3 virtual schooling, virtual school leadership, collaborative technologies, 21st century learning skills.
Mary Jo Grdina, PhD (Case Western Reserve University). Associate Clinical Professor. Undergraduate studies; Science education; Curriculum design; Informal science education; Preparation and development of science educators; Physics in Philadelphia.
Dominic F. Gullo, PhD (Indiana University) Associate Dean of Research. Professor. Studying the relative and long-range effects of early schooling experiences in prekindergarten and kindergarten on children's achievement and social adaptation to school routine.
Penny Hammrich, PhD (University of Minnesota) Doctor of Doctoral Programs. Professor. Urban education, science, education, science literacy, genetics, gender equity, sport science, science knowledge for conceptual teaching, conceptual change learning.
Paul Harrington, EdD (University of Massachusetts) Director of the Center for Markets and Policy. Professor. Health labor markets, teen and young adult job access. college labor market, high school to college transition, drop-outs, vocational rehabilitation and job market transition, disability in the labor market, older workers, career and technical education, economic outlook, immigrants in the college labor market, workforce development, planning and evaluation.
Elizabeth Haslam, PhD (University of Pennsylvania) Program Director of Learning Technologies. Associate Clinical Professor. Educational field coordinator, instructional design, qualitative evaluation, writing across the curriculum.
Marlene Hilkowitz Assistant Clinical Professor. Science education; Curriculum development; Student engagement.
Deanna Hill, JD, PhD (University of Iowa, University of Pittsburgh Program) Program Director of Higher Education. Assistant Clinical Professor. Higher education, international education, education law, education policy.
Jennifer Katz-Buonincontro, PhD (University of Oregon). Assistant Professor. Leadership development, psychology of developing creative thinking and problem solving in leaders, adult learning, case study design, survey and instrument design, creativity and the arts.
Kristine Kelly, PhD (University of Wisconsin-Madison) Program Director of Global and International Education Program. Assistant Clinical Professor. Sociology of development, anthropology of policy, comparative and international education, qualitative research methods, Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
Vera J. Lee, EdD (University of Pennsylvania). Assistant Clinical Professor. English as a Second Language (ESL), literacy instruction K-12, reading/writing theories, multicultural education, English language learners.
Bruce Levine, JD (New York University) Program Director of Educational Policy and Educational Improvement and Transformation Programs. Assistant Clinical Professor. Educational policy, school law, public-private partnerships, intersection of business and education.
Kristine Lewis, PhD (Temple University). Assistant Clinical Professor. Experiences of students of African descent at predominantly white colleges and universities, college access and college student development, youth civic engagement in urban school reform, qualitative research and evaluation.
Kristine S. Lewis Grant, PhD (Temple University). Associate Clinical Professor. Experiences of students of African descent at predominantly white colleges and universities, college access and college student development, youth civic engagement in urban school reform, qualitative research and evaluation.
William Lynch, PhD (University of Maryland). Professor. Educational technology, curriculum and educational leadership, distance learning policy development, high and adult education.
Constance Lyttle, PhD, JD (University of Pittsburgh). Associate Clinical Professor. Legal rights of gifted and talented children and children with disabilities, inclusive education of exceptional children, special education mediation, special education IEP/IFSP facilitation facilitation, resolution session facilitation.
Kenneth J. Mawritz, PhD (University of Pittsburgh) Site Director for Pottstown and Blue Bell EdD Cohorts. Assistant Clinical Professor. Educational administration.
Michel L. Miller O'Neal, PhD (University of Miami). Assistant Professor. Special education; Autism Spectrum Disorders; Program evaluation
Joyce Pittman, PhD (Iowa State University of Science and Technology) Site Director for Harrisburg EdD Program. Associate Clinical Professor. Curriculum and instruction K-16; Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL); instructional design business education and administration; industrial and career technology; oral and written communication; research methodology; instructional and assistive technology assessment; Online learning pedagogy.
Kathleen Provinzano, PhD (Marywood University). Associate Clinical Professor. Educational administration.
Fredricka K. Reisman, PhD (Syracuse University) Director of Torrance Center for Creativity and Innovation. Professor. Mathematics education, learning mathematics, mathematics pedagogy, teacher education, heuristic diagnostic learning and teaching, theory and research in creativity and applied creativity.
Tina Richardson, PhD (University of Maryland) Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Minority student development, multicultural competence, impact of international experiences abroad on personal and professional development.
Lori Severino, EdD (Neumann University) Program Director for Special Education Programs. Assistant Clinical Professor. Special education, differentiated instruction, reading, Wilson language, multi-sensory instruction, reading comprehension, assessment, adolescent literacy.
Jason Silverman, PhD (Vanderbilt University) Program Director for Mathematical Learning and Teaching Program. Associate Professor. Teaching and learning of advanced mathematical ideas (algebra and calculus); improving teachers' ability to orchestrate and sustain inquiry-based and discussion-based instruction; technology in mathematics education.
Brian Smith, PhD (Northwestern University). Professor. Design of computer-based learning environments; Human-computer interaction; Design sciences.
Nancy Butler Songer, PhD (University of California, Berkley) Dean, School of Education. Distinguished Professor. STEM education, urban education, educational assistance
Mary Jean Tecce DeCarlo, EdD (University of Pennsylvania). Assistant Clinical Professor. Early Literacy Development; Digital and Information Literacy; Learning differences; Urban education.
Sarah P. Ulrich, EdD (St. Joseph's University) Program Director, Teacher Education. Associate Clinical Professor. Emphasis in Cross Cultural, Language and Academic Development
Sheila Vaidya, PhD (Temple University). Associate Professor. Educational psychology, school psychology, research design.
Christina Vorndran, PhD (Louisiana State University). Associate Clinical Professor. Applied behavior analysis; Developmental disabilities.
M. Hope Yursa Assistant Clinical Professor. Mathematics learning and teaching.
Interdepartmental Faculty
Jacqueline Genovesi, PhD (Drexel University) Vice President, Education, the Academy of Natural Sciences. Assistant Clinical Professor. Museum education, interpretive strategies and museum leadership.
Barbara Jean Hoekje, PhD (University of Pennsylvania) Director of English Language Center. Associate Professor. Sociolinguistic theory, discourse analysis, applied linguistics (language teaching, learning, and testing).
Patricia Henry Russell, MS (Drexel University). Teaching Professor. Probability and statistics.
Emeritus Faculty
Francis Harvey, EdD (Harvard University). Professor Emeritus. Enhanced learning, socio-cultural learning, distance education.
Bernard Lentz, PhD (Yale University) Vice Provost for Institutional Research Emeritus. Professor. Institutional research in higher education; Educational and labor market impacts of work-integrated learning; Economics of higher education; Racial and gender equity among faculty in higher education and the learned professions.
