Curriculum

Curriculum

The School of Education and the Division of Higher Education offer a master’s degree in Education with an emphasis in Higher Education in a fully online program with two specialty areas: 

  • Higher education administration
  • Community college leadership

All students admitted Fall 2020 or later have the below required 21 credits of core curriculum and 9 hours in a sub-concentration for a total of 30 credits. If you were admitted prior to the Fall of 2020, your course sequence can be found here. 

Required Courses 

  • HG ED 5440: Foundations of Leadership and Learning (3 credits)
  • HG ED 5520: Introduction to Higher Education in the United States (3 credits)
  • HG ED 5720: Resource Management in Higher Education (3 credits)
  • HG ED 5730: Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion in Student Affairs (3 credits)
  • HG ED 5750: Organization and Administration of Student Affairs (3 credits)
  • HG ED 5760: Student Development in Higher Education (3 credits)
  • RESEV 5500: Introduction to Educational Research (3 credits)

Higher Education Administration concentration

  • HG ED 5040: History of Higher Education in the United States (3 credits)
  • HG ED 5770: Campus Environments and Cultures (3 credits)
  • HG ED 5930: Workshop [Current topics in higher education administration] (3 credits)

Community College Leadership concentration

  • HG ED 5810: Community and College Partnerships (3 credits) 
  • HG ED 5800: Current Topics in Community Colleges (3 credits)
  • HG ED 5820: The Comprehensive Community College (3 credits)

Course descriptions can be accessed via the Iowa State course catalog.

School of Education Requirements for Students

School of Education requirements for students entering Fall 2017. In addition to these core requirements, students may also have division requirements. All PhD students are required to take a course in the Foundations of Educational Inquiry that introduces students to the landscape of the field of education with particular emphasis on the philosophy of educational inquiry:

  • C I 6010: Foundations of Educational Inquiry (3 credits)

OR

  • ELPS 6010X: Foundations of Educational Inquiry (3 credits) (this is only available to
  • students in the Thursday/Friday course delivery format)

Additionally, all PhD students in the School of Education are required to take a core set of research methods courses:

  • RESEV 6030X: Foundations of Qualitative Inquiry in Education (3 credits)
  • One course in quantitative methods
  • One additional research methods course