Coursework

The courses listed are required. 36 total credits are required for degree completion. Six units of elective credit may be taken outside of the College of Education. Additional credits must be approved by your academic advisor.

Overview of the Core Curriculum 

Semester 1 

HED 610 (History of Higher Education) provides a grounding in and a critical analytical approach to understanding the historical and philosophical foundations of postsecondary education and student affairs. 

HED 617 (Student Personnel Services in Higher Education) introduces students to the profession and contemporary practice of Student Personnel Services, or Student Affairs, and the many ways Student Affairs contributes to the college/university experience. Students explore a variety of functional areas in Student Affairs, often by meeting directly with senior professionals to discuss guiding research, emerging trends, and practical tensions. Students will have opportunities to apply what they learn to assignments such as professional interviews and interprofessional case studies. 

EDL 622 (Research & Data-Based Decision Making) currently fulfills the “Introduction to Educational Research” requirement offers an introduction to educational research, including a focus on quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research, including how to how to search for, read, sift through, implement educational research, and then apply that research to practice. The class serves as a gateway course to future methods work (e.g., methods electives) for students who choose to pursue further methods classes to enhance those skills. 

Semester 2 

HED 608 (The College Student) entails the history and characteristics of the college student and their interactions with campus environmental influences as well as developmental and normative trends. 

HED 609 (Organization and Administration in Higher Education) covers organizational theory, structures, systems, and administrative procedures in varied higher education institutions, including patterns of governance and policy development. 

Semester 3 

HED 624 (Advising and Supervision) guides students in thinking about the work they will do when they graduate and become practitioners by integrating some of the newer, critically based literature being written regarding advising and supervision along with other valuable best practices.  

Pairing this course with HED 693 (Internship) gives students a chance to do praxis work across courses during their third semester of coursework. 

Semester 4 

HED 627 (Capstone: Contemporary Issues in Student Affairs) encourages the development of a portfolio assignment. Portfolios have a strong base in extant literature—including in Higher Education Studies—for aiding student learning and development through ongoing self-reflection. A portfolio provides an important space for critical consciousness-raising, especially as students move into or continue their careers as student affairs educators. Among other components, this assignment encourages students to select artifacts that demonstrate their having achieved program learning outcomes and competency areas in alignment with ACPA and NASPA as the overarching professional associations for student affairs educators. Developing a portfolio involves the final stage in a process that is highly reflective and iterative as students move through their four semesters, focusing on the following questions: 

• How have I grown intrapersonally because of being in the master’s program? 
• How have I grown interpersonally because of being in the master’s program? 
• How have I grown cognitively because of being in the master’s program? 

Specifically, the faculty instructing the sequence of courses listed below move students through the following reflections, in consultation with their professional mentors: 

• For HED 617: What is my emerging philosophy of education as a student affairs educator? 
• For HED 608: What are ways I can continue to invest in my own growth and development alongside the students and staff I will work with as a student affairs educator? 
• For HED 693: How has my praxis as a student affairs educator been re/shaped, challenged, and/or deepened because of my internship this semester? 
• For HED 627: How do I want to move into my new role as an educator given all I have learned and experienced in the Higher Education master’s program? 
• In students’ final semester, they are asked to integrate all this reflective work into their portfolio in order to begin crafting an action plan for how they will embody the role of student affairs educator in their professional position. 

A note on Electives 

Four electives are required: 

• Two electives focused on social justice topics; 
• One elective focused on methods; and 
• One open elective, to be used as each individual student sees fit.