This 12-month online master’s degree program is uniquely designed to help individuals worldwide address higher education's evolving challenges in economic, cultural, and institutional settings.
Higher education stands at the center of the global knowledge economy, facing increasingly complex challenges and opportunities. The Global Higher Education Management, M.S.Ed. program is a transformative online master's degree. It is designed for mid- to senior-level higher education professionals who are seeking to lead institutions into the future. This program equips you with the strategies, insights, and tools to strengthen higher education in your local context while engaging with a powerful global network.
Culminating experienceMaster’s capstone project
This 12-month, online program is designed for the working professional with a mix of asynchronous and required synchronous sessions, allowing students to work independently and in collaboration across countries, continents, and time zones.
This program blends practical strategies, global insights, and collaborative learning to prepare you to lead with vision and impact. The curriculum connects theory to practice and focuses on solving real-world institutional challenges, with action-oriented modules that equip you to lead organizational change, drive innovation, and strengthen institutional leadership.
The program culminates in a capstone project, empowering you to tackle a pressing problem or opportunity within your professional context–providing you the opportunity to make an impact within your place of work. Examples of past projects include:
This program is tailored for professionals with at least five years of experience in universities and education-related organizations and agencies. It is ideal for those who want to:
Participants represent a variety of professional and educational backgrounds, and many hold advanced degrees. Penn GSE welcomes applicants from around the world, creating a cohort of leaders dedicated to shaping the future of higher education. All coursework and instruction are conducted in English.
Complete a brief self-assessment to help determine if this program is the right fit for you.
This executive-style master’s degree uses a condensed, modular format in which students take a structured sequence of modules as a cohort. Three modules equate to one course, and the degree program requires ten courses. The program is geared toward working adults, but it is a full-time degree program. Therefore, students will need to make a commitment to the program and balance their work and personal commitments. Each module is based on ten hours of student engagement. On top of these ten hours, each module includes additional time spent on readings, papers, and other assignments. Some modules are delivered over two-week periods, while others are delivered in a one-week condensed format. Each module will include at least two one-hour sessions of required synchronous sessions, and some modules may have more. Given the variations in time zones, program staff and faculty will work to accommodate program participants learning from around the world. We believe in the power of real-time engagement within the cohort and with program faculty and staff.
The curriculum includes the following courses and modules:
The High-Impact University
This course focuses on the social and civic role universities and colleges in diverse national contexts. It explores the diverse national and social contexts in which universities both respond to and help to shape. It explores the role of university as citizen and social and economic actor. Finally, it focuses on the changing role of higher education in knowledge economies with a focus on diverse contexts:
The Evolving Global Landscape
Higher education, while a national (or local) responsibility, is shaped by global forces – economic, social, political, and technological. This course focuses on the trends in globalization and the ways in which those forces impact universities positively and negatively. It addresses globalization and its discontents; the disruption and innovation that globalization creates and reinforces, and the ways in which global forces make universities more, rather than less, important in the global dialogue of human development:
Magnifying the Mission
The traditional mission of teaching, research and service continues to evolve in response to changing public expectations for higher education. This course focuses on ensuring meaningful and impactful student engagement; the foundational role of research and the ways new knowledge can be leveraged to address problems; and the ways in which the teaching and learning functions are changing in light of technology innovation and increased demands for measurable outcomes:
Governance, Change, and Strategy
Effective universities require effective management and governance to lead change and drive innovation. This course focuses on how leaders lead and affect intentional institutional change; the role of strategy and planning as vehicles for intentional long-term change; and the ways in which institutional level governance can positively impact the trajectories of institutions:
The Human Enterprise
At their core, universities are human endeavors. Their primary output is human, citizens active in social and economic pursuits. Their primary input is human, the faculty who deliver the core functions of the university. This module focuses on the human dimension of higher education with a particular focus on equity and inclusion in diverse contexts; how to effectively build and manage teams essential to deliver on the mission; and how individuals can manage and benefit from being intentional stewards of personal, professional, and organizational transitions:
The University in its External Contexts
The notion of higher education being an Ivory Tower, separate from the world, is nostalgia if not outright myth. Universities are very much shaped by the contexts in which they operate. They need to be responsive to political, economic, and social trends. What happens outside universities impacts what happens inside of them. This course seeks to understand how universities must operate in and leaders must shape the political context; the role regulation and politics play; and how university leaders must ensure quality and relevance:
The Challenges of Leading
Universities never have a slow day. There are constant demands on leaders’ time, talent, and skills. To be effective leaders must have the skills to use data to understand their problems and opportunities, the capacity to lead in times of crises, and leverage the skills and talents of individuals collectively to advance the university and its priorities. Leadership is a collective pursuit, one that requires intentionality and agility, and is shaped by context and circumstance:
Designing the Future
University leaders need to think about and prepare for the future. Universities risk becoming stagnant and outdated if they do not continually innovate. This course focuses on the principles of design thinking, how leaders can engage campus communities to design and bring about a desired future. It will explore new models of universities and how universities, even long-established ones, can become the disruptors:
The Business of the Academic Business
Universities are not businesses (far from it with their social missions, academic core, and public policy ties), but they do have business functions. This module explores three areas related to the business functions of higher education. Their entrepreneurial activities, the ways they project (intentionally or not) their brand identities into the broader world, and how they engage alumni as active contributors to the university, and well beyond their simple donor role. University leaders need to understand the ways their universities can create and sustain entrepreneurial cultures to secure needed resources and leverage resources and assets to positively impact the university:
Capstone Action Lab: Problems/Opportunities of Practice
This program is based on the premise that it will help develop knowledgeable, skills leaders to effect change in their higher education contexts. To that end, this capstone course will allow students to frame a problem of practice through an Action Lab, which is a highly engaging, problem-based, and solution-orientated, course. By the end of this course, you will be able to:
The University of Pennsylvania is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
The University of Pennsylvania is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), 3624 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. (267) 284-5000. www.msche.org.
The MSCHE is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the US Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA). Information about Penn’s accreditation with MSCHE is available here.
To make a complaint to MSCHE, visit this website.
For more information about Penn’s accreditation status, visit the Penn Provost website.
Our faculty are leading the conversation about how to expand equal opportunity and access in the higher education setting. These experts are routinely sought by university presidents, foundation leaders, journalists, and policymakers seeking to understand the changing landscape of higher education.
Ant Bagshaw Roberta Malee Bassett Ahmed Cassim Bawa Darkhan Bilyalov Mahesh Daas Yakut Gazi Jonathan Grant Jonathan Jansen Tom Kennie Michael Martinez Larry Moneta Alan Duncan Priestley Nirmala Rao Sarah B. Steinberg Karin Swartz Fredrick Hoopes Wampler
Strategy Consultant, L.E.K. Consulting
Ed.D., University of Sheffield
Global Lead for Tertiary Education, The World Bank
Ph.D., Boston College
Professor, Johannesburg Business School, University of Johannesburg
Ph.D., Durham University
Vice President, Kazakhstan National Academy of Sciences
Ph.D., Penn State University
President and ACSA Distinguished Professor, Boston Architectural College
Ed.D., University of Pennsylvania
Vice Provost for Learning Innovation and Digital Education and Professor of the Practice, Duke University
Ph.D., Texas A&M University
Founding Director, Different Angles
Ph.D., King’s Collge London
Distinguished Professor of Education, Stellenbosch University
Ph.D., Stanford University
Founding Director, Ranmore
Ph.D., Imperial College, London
Dean of Students, New York University Abu Dhabi
MBA, Babson College
Adjunct Professor, Penn GSE
Ed.D., University of Massachusetts - Amherst
General Director of Institutional Effectiveness, Office of the Provost, Nazarbayev University
Ph.D., University of Hull
Vice Chancellor and Professor of Politics, Krea University
Ph.D., University of London
Provost Emeritus, The University of Arizona Global Campus
Ed.D., University of Pennsylvania
Assistant Dean, Center for Community Engagement, York College
Ed.D., University of Pennsylvania
Senior Associate Vice President for Alumni Relations, University of Pennsylvania
Ed.D., University of Pennsylvania
The master's degree in Global Higher Education Management equips professionals with the skills to navigate the challenges of university leadership in a rapidly evolving global landscape. Graduates of this program will:
Equip your professional staff with the leadership skills, knowledge, and international network they need to take your university or organization to the next level. To learn more, please contact Walter Lohmann wlohmann@upenn.edu.
Please visit our Admissions and Financial Aid pages for specific information on the application requirements, as well as information on tuition, fees, financial aid, scholarships, and fellowships.
Contact us if you have any questions about the program.
Graduate School of Education
University of Pennsylvania
3700 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 898-6415
admissions@gse.upenn.edu
finaid@gse.upenn.edu
Peter Eckel
Program Director
GSE-GlobalHEManagement@gse.upenn.edu
Please view information from our Admissions and Financial Aid Office for specific information on the cost of this program.
Most students in this program are anticipated to fund their degree through a combination of personal resources and employer benefits. Limited scholarships are available to a select group of individuals.