Global Higher Education Management (Online)

The cohort-based curriculum will encourage students to work both independently and collaboratively during an intensive 12 months of coursework, culminating in a capstone project. The curriculum follows GSE’s proven executive format based on short-course modules. The courses take place online through a mix of synchronous and asynchronous instruction.

The curriculum includes the following courses and modules:

The Social Purposes of High-Impact Universities
Building on one of GSE’s areas of expertise, these modules focus on the public purposes of higher education and the ways in which they can connect with and serve their diverse communities:

• Why universities matter and making them matter more
• The social and civic mission for the 21st Century
• Universities and their communities

Navigating the Evolving Global Higher Education Landscape
A globally focused program needs to address the continued globalization of higher education, understand transnational trends that create opportunities and pose potential disruptions and the implications for post-secondary education. The modules are:

• Understanding diverse contexts and assumptions
• Globalization: Its influence and its discontents
• Disruption and innovation

Magnifying the Teaching, Research and Service Missions
Teaching, learning, and research are the cornerstones of the academic enterprise. These three modules focus on the core activities of universities:

• Technology to deepen and broaden learning
• Ensuring student engagement
• Strengthening research: Its impact and delivery

Leveraging Governance, Change, and Strategy
Understanding how organizational change is fundamental for universities to be innovative and relevant. These modules focus on leading institutional change, crafting strategy as a roadmap for intentional change, and supporting meaningful governance:

• Institutional change and transitions
• Strategy beyond strategic planning
• Governing for change

Strengthening the Human Enterprise
People are the most essential resource for higher education. These modules address fundamental issues such as diversity, management, and leadership:

• Diversity and inclusion
• Managing people and people processes
• Leading teams

Understanding Universities in their External Contexts
Universities are dependent upon and shaped by their financial, policy and accountability contexts. The notion of an ivory tower is outdated if it ever really existed. These modules focus on the impact and constraints of the various contexts in which universities operate: 

• Policy, politics, and policymakers
• Regulation, autonomy, and funding
• Ensuring quality and relevance

Leveraging Data-Inspired Decision Making
Data can be considered an essential raw material for university administration. Data takes many forms and can be used in many ways to advance universities, which is the focus of these modules: 

• Using international data sets for comparison
• Developing data infrastructure to support decisions
• Performance measurement and learning analytics

Knowing the Business of the Academic Business
The intentional and wise use of financial resources is essential work of university administrators, as is the ability to generate revenue to support academic missions. These modules are:

• Funding and financial models
• Budgeting for innovation
• The entrepreneurial university

Addressing Pressing Problems of Practice
Central to this program is the application of knowledge to real-world problems. These three building block modules, leveraging design thinking ideas, provide the foundation for the program’s final capstone problem:

• Part 1: Design thinking
• Part 2: Framing future challenges and opportunities
• Part 3: Collecting evidence and understanding opportunities