Building on historic strengths in the study of both international and domestic higher education, Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development will offer a three-year, part-time online Executive Doctor of Education in Higher Education (Ed.D.) program aimed at developing leaders with the skills, mindsets, and technical knowledge necessary to navigate the changing pace of higher education today, Stanton E.F. Wortham, the Charles F. Donovan, S.J., Dean of the Lynch School, has announced.
Starting in fall 2021, the 48-credit curriculum, which features three, week-long summer residencies at Boston College and abroad, will focus on data-driven decision making, diversity and equity, design thinking, and strategic planning to resolve complex challenges. Professionals with a minimum of five-to-10 years of work experience in mid- to high-level administrative positions in higher education or a related field will benefit from this program, which culminates in a practice-based capstone project addressing current issues in higher education.
“In an era of increased disruption and rapid change, higher education needs a new kind of leadership,” said Wortham. “This program will help participants re-imagine institutions, execute difficult decisions, discern whether traditional ways of conducting business are still relevant, and attend to issues of justice and purpose.”
Embedded within the program is an optional Catholic higher education concentration that will engage candidates through curricular resources and formative activities, with the goal of articulating, animating and assessing the characteristics of a vibrant, twenty-first century Catholic college or university.
“We have designed the courses in this program to function as living laboratories for students to critically analyze contemporary issues in American and international higher education,” said Angela Boatman, associate professor of Educational Leadership & Higher Education. “Graduates of this program will be exceptionally well prepared to lead change and innovation in a dynamic, rapidly changing higher education landscape.”
BC's first coeducational school on the Chestnut Hill campus, the School of Education opened in 1952 to 176 freshmen. Today, more that 1,400 undergraduate and graduate students attend the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, ranked 19th among graduate schools of education by U.S. News & World Report , and first among U.S. Catholic schools of education. In 1999, Boston-area philanthropists Carolyn and Peter Lynch contributed more than $10 million to the University; in recognition of that gift, the school was formally named in their honor in November 2000.
Phil Gloudemans | University Communications | September 2020