The College's Center for Graduate Education and Special Programs became a new and independent college this fall, following approval of its charter this summer by the New York State Board of Regents.
The new college, which is called the Graduate College of Union University, will have three schools-management, engineering, and education-and the Center for Bioethics. It will offer graduate programs in educational studies, engineering (electrical and mechanical), computer science, business administration, health administration, and bioethics. It will have its own board of trustees, including Union College President Roger Hull.
Professor Susan Lehrman, who directed the Center for Graduate Education and Special Programs, said an independent graduate college will allow expansion through targeted marketing, fundraising, and recruitment to meet the growing regional demand for full- and part-time graduate study.
“This is an exciting time for the Capital Region, as the Tech Valley initiative takes flight and there is more focus on a highly-educated workforce,” she said. “Union College and the new Graduate College will be vital players in this initiative.”
Lehrman said that Union's graduate program has seen substantial growth in recent years. “By becoming an independent college, we can continue to grow our programs, add enrollments, create more community partnerships, and do more and better marketing and fundraising,” she said.
The graduate college will have a unique academic relationship with Union College through a lease arrangement in which faculty and students will continue to have access to all Union College facilities and ancillary services. The graduate college's offices will remain in Lamont House on campus, with classes and labs at Union.
The graduate college will be affiliated with Union University, a federation of independent undergraduate and graduate institutions. It currently consists of Union College, Albany Medical College, Albany Law College, Dudley Observatory, and Albany College of Pharmacy. Established in 1873, Union University has a board of governors comprising representatives of the member institutions' boards of trustees. The president of Union College serves as the chancellor of Union University.
Programs in the Center for Graduate Education and Special Programs that will be part of the new graduate college include:
- Educational Studies, one of the few secondary education teacher programs that requires a full year of student teaching. The program has a placement rate of nearly ninety-eight percent in Capital Region schools, an area that does not have a teacher shortage, and a seventy-eight percent pass rate on the National Teachers Certification Exam, compared to the forty-eight percent national average.
- The College's M.B.A. program, which is the largest full-time program in the Capital Region. There has been a twenty-five percent increase in students over the past two years, and the M.B.A. job placement rate is more than ninety percent.
- The Health Systems M.B.A., which is one of only twenty-one dually-accredited programs in the country and one of only four accredited programs in the state.
- The Global M.B.A. program, which attracts students from nearly twenty countries.
- The Engineering Division, which features a mix of practical and theoretical curriculum, has partnered with a consortium of engineering companies to ensure it meets the needs of the changing Capital Region economy.
- The Center for Bioethics, which offers one of the nation's two distance learning programs
-a joint venture with Albany Medical College with the flexibility to serve working healthcare professionals.
The College's graduate
program enrolls some 400 students, about half of whom are full time.