Graduate enrollment at Miami University could increase from about eight percent of total enrollment to 10 percent if new degree programs are implemented, explained Bruce Cochrane, dean of the Graduate School. Currently, Miami's Oxford campus is home to 1,341 graduate students.
While the exact number of new degrees to become available is still in the making, Miami has a proposal for a two-year master's program in computational science and engineering that could go into affect as soon as fall 2008.
"If approved, this will be the first master's program in computational science and engineering in the state of Ohio and one of the first in the nation," said Marek Dollar, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
The program would be relatively small with 20 or 25 students with degrees in math, science, or engineering, according to Dollar.
Dollar said the program is a computer science program for engineers, scientists and mathematicians and would put the techniques of computer science and mathematics toward solving problems in different disciplines.
Yet in his Annual Address to the university, President David Hodge stated that Miami's primary goal remains to be excellent in undergraduate education. Miami's plan for graduate education is to stay focused on a few, select graduate programs. Cochrane explained that graduate programs at a university support the goal of a strong undergraduate focus in a number of ways.
"The building of quality graduate programs is key to the . . . building of quality departments, attracting those very good faculty who are committed to the vision of Miami," Cochrane said.
According to Jeffrey Herbst, the university provost, new graduate programs would enhance undergraduate education and allow faculty and students to explore new areas of knowledge. Herbst said the university is moving in a direction of more graduate programs, but not significantly more graduate students.
In addition, Cochrane said that graduate programs greatly enhance a department's ability to offer research opportunities to undergraduates.
Graduate programs begin with informal discussions and then travel from the department to the department's divisional dean and then to the Graduate School.
"(New graduate programs) will allow us to explore, especially interdisciplinary, areas of knowledge that we currently don't cover," Herbst said.
Cochrane believes that building excellence in select graduate programs would enhance the opportunities for everybody to grow and advance as scholars.
According to Cochrane, Miami is taking a careful, considered approach to adding graduate programs, making sure that each department is fully ready for the addition.
Funding for graduate programs either comes from reallocation or is generated by the department, such as in the Farmer School of Business.
"I can tell you for sure that you're not going to see money taken away from undergraduate programs to develop new graduate programs," Cochrane said.
According to Cochrane, no one in the central administration envisions major growth across the board in expenditures on graduate education.
"When somebody proposes a new program, that's not a budget request," he said.
The resources to carry out a proposal are not automatically tied to the idea, but need to be developed such as by potential reallocation within the unit, according to Cochrane.
New graduate programs would require the department to designate a graduate program director and change some teaching assignments, but more administrative jobs would probably not be needed.
Even though, according to Cochrane, the new graduate programs are not a budget request, some cost will go into implementing the program.
"The major cost in a graduate program is the cost of the faculty," Cochrane said.
Implementing new graduate programs in Ohio is a long process involving multiple proposals and state approval, Cochrane said.
Currently, Miami has degrees and doctoral programs in life sciences in the preliminary stages. he proposal for a two-year master's program in computational science and engineering could go into affect in fall 2008 if approved in a timely manner.
"The university at both the undergraduate and the graduate level has to continue to innovate," Herbst said. "Knowledge is being created at an unprecedented rate and we therefore have to be able to respond."
