WE TEACH AN ADVANCED AND COHERENT CURRICULUM FOCUSED ON CORE MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES IN HIGHER EDUCATION

As well as reinforcing a basic appreciation of higher education as an American institution—its history and philosophy, missions and markets, governance, administration, and faculty and students—our curriculum centers on enhancing proficiency in advanced topics in core areas of higher education management:

In short, ours is a relevant curriculum for the most senior leaders in higher education and related industries.

Our curriculum is also a clear departure from the norm. The usual option for executives and senior managers interested in doctoral study in higher education is to enroll in a local program and take introductory-level courses one at a time over several years. These courses rarely, if ever, focus on the strategic and management challenges that executives and senior managers confront daily and are populated by fellow students who are predominantly in entry-level or mid-career positions.


A DIVERSE AND ACCOMPLISHED GROUP OF SENIOR FACULTY TEACHES THE PROGRAM.

In addition to the core Penn higher education faculty, we also involve a diverse group of other leaders from academe—both faculty and administrators—in teaching and advising.

Our teaching faculty approaches the study of higher education management from several disciplinary perspectives, including education, history, law, economics, administrative sciences, and statistics.

For instance, Robert Zemsky from our core faculty teaches on markets; Larry Moneta, the Vice President for Student Affairs at Duke, teaches our partnerships module; and Peter Cappelli, from the Wharton School, teaches negotiation.

The program’s director has frequent and regular contact with all of the students, supervising their dissertation work for the first part of the program, advising them through modules, and serving on the several students dissertation committees.