Host Samantha Wilcox and guest Chris Dunham, MBA, discuss the NCU School of Undergraduate Studies for students ready to take that next step in their educational journey.
Host Samantha Wilcox and guest Chris Dunham, MBA, discuss the NCU School of Undergraduate Studies for students ready to take that next step in their educational journey.
ETHE Ep29
00:04
Hello, everyone, and welcome to emerging trends in higher ed. My name is Samantha Wilcox, and I am your host for today's discussion. Joining us today is Dean Chris Dunham of NCU School of Undergraduate Studies. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today, Chris, welcome.
Thank you for having me.
00:21
Absolutely. Our hope today is to learn a little bit more about the School of undergraduate studies for students ready to take that next step in their educational journey. So let's jump in. Okay. So Chris, can you tell me a little bit about why MCU created the School of Undergraduate Studies this past year?
00:41
Yes, I can say. So. NCS had such good success with the one-to-one model for our graduate students, that we wanted to extend the opportunity to more potential students at undergraduate level. And the School of Undergraduate Studies is an extension of NC us mission to provide an accelerated pathway for student’s career success. So, with our two bachelor's programs, we have over a dozen what we call Fast Forward paths that allow students to accelerate through their bachelor's and into their master's degree.
01:17
Excellent. Now what potential student population is su s are the School of Undergraduate Studies hoping to attract and their programs like the graduate brethren of NCU, we, we mainly cater to the non-traditional, the working adult, those who are wanting to further their career and are on their college journey, specifically for the school of undergrad studies. We are focusing on individuals who have started that college journey but life interrupted, it happens. And now they want to go back and they want to finish that bachelor's degree. And they also recognize that that master's degree is the best accelerator for their career. And so with our fast forward, we're able to then take those students move them through the bachelors. And because of the fast forward, they can move on into a master's program. And we can talk more about that in a minute.
02:13
Excellent. Now, can you tell us more about the undergraduate programs that are offered at NCU?
02:20
Yes, we have a Bachelor of Psychology, which is currently our most popular, and we also have a Bachelor of business, the Bachelor of Psychology, we actually had nine fast forwards into related master's programs. And if you don't mind, I would like to mention those fast forwards just for our viewers, our listeners. So from the bachelor of psychology, students can fast forward into a Masters of psychology, or they can go into marriage and family counseling masters. There's a Master of Child Adolescent Development, Psychology, Forensic Psychology and other hot career path. We've also got a Master of Health Psychology, Master of Industrial Organizational Psychology, Educational Psychology, Sports Psychology, and Applied Behavior Analysis.
So, as you can see, there's a multitude of pathways into careers for students from the Bachelor of psychology. Turning back to our Bachelor of Business Administration, we've got four pathways for those students, they can accelerate into their MBA or into the MSL, that's a Master of Science of Organizational Leadership, or we've got pathways for technology in our technology and innovation management masters. And then we have a very special nice for those who are associates or assistants in like radiology and would like to get into clinic management. We've got a specialization in Health Administration services of the Bachelor of Business to help that level of individuals move on into clinic management or supervisory roles.
04:01
Excellent. So, what I'm hearing is you have options for everyone. So many great, great programs in that list.
04:07
Thank you. So of course, so you've mentioned fast forward a few times. How does this fast forward into a master's degree work? I didn't see you.
04:17
Well, it's pretty straightforward actually is what we do is that we have embedded for master's courses into the upper division of the bachelor’s program. So that way, as students move beyond the core courses of the bachelor’s degree, they then take four of these master’s courses embedded in their baccalaureate program for 12 credit hours, that goes towards meeting the 120 credit hour requirement for the bachelors. Then once they've completed the bachelor's, they can win, and they're accepted into the masters. They've already completed 12 credits, which for most of our master’s degrees is about a third of the program. So it's quicker and To phrase cost, and it's just a win, win.
05:03
Definitely sounds like a win, win. From a student's perspective, that's for sure.
05:09
Excellent.
05:09
I have one last question for you today. When can new students enroll in the NCU undergraduate program and get started working toward their fast forward degree?
05:20
So that's another great thing about NCS one to one model. We don't have to wait for class size cohorts, you know, minimum class size before most organized institutions will start a class. Because of our one to one we have weekly starts. So a faculty member professor is paired with a student, and they can start their course that week. And one of the things I also wanted to mention while I've got your attention, Sam, is that we also changed our basis for admissions this past July for our bachelors’ programs, before we required 60 credits, which is the equivalent of an associate degree.
And we lowered that to 24 credits, so we can expand our opportunity to more students, potential students who would be benefit from our one-to-one model. And so, we've rolled out general education courses, and we work with outside partners to try to get as much prior learning and transfer credits as we can. Again, the goal is to try to help students to expedite their baccalaureate experience and move on into that master's degree. Apologies for that little segue.
06:26
Now, that's perfect. And the more information the better. Um, it seems like we're really doing everything we can in these programs to give opportunities to students and those different pathways are definitely helpful. So, thank you so much for taking the time to share all about it and about your programs. And Dean Denham, we really appreciate all the info that you shared with us today.
06:50
Thank you so much. And I look forward to having more students come into our programs and experience the NC 101 model.
06:57
Same here. Well, for folks out there. To hear more about MCU and visit the emerging trends in higher ed podcast found on your preferred media platform. please reach out to our advisors or ncua.edu for more information on these programs in the School of undergraduate studies, and we'll get you all set up. On behalf of Dean Chris Denham. This is Samantha Wilcox reminding you that at NC U. You have what it takes to change the world. We offer what it takes to make it happen. Until next time, goodbye.