From the issue dated March 22, 2002
|
|
|
Harvard Reviews Rule for On-Campus CoursesBy JEFFREY R. YOUNGA new Harvard University committee will reconsider a longstanding policy that requires both undergraduate and graduate students to spend at least a full academic year taking classes on the campus to earn a Harvard degree. If the rule is changed, it could pave the way for degree programs in which students take some or all of their classes online, rather than in classrooms. The committee, composed of 10 faculty members from various departments and professional schools, has been formed at the request of the university's president, Lawrence H. Summers. The group has been asked to "review the university's existing residency requirement and advise [the president] and the provost on an array of emerging opportunities," according to Daniel D. Moriarty, the university's chief information officer. The committee's mission statement calls for it to consider "online (electronically-mediated) programs, or hybrid online/residential programs," as well as other "non-traditional" formats. Mr. Moriarty said that many professional schools at Harvard had expressed interest in creating programs that would allow students to attend courses part time, perhaps with some sessions held online. In an article in The Harvard Crimson, Mr. Summers said that experiments with online education at the university had raised questions about whether the residency requirement was still appropriate. "The question has arisen as lifestyles change and it becomes more difficult for midcareer professionals to come to the university for part of their career," Mr. Summers told the student paper. Exemption for Physicians Harvard's School of Public Health has already been allowed to create a program that is exempt from the residency requirement. The school offers a two-year master's degree in health-care management in which students come to the campus on several weekends and in the summer. The program, which prepares physicians and dentists for executive roles in health-care organizations, is supplemented by online sessions and teleconferences. None of the courses are completely online, however. Since that part-time program was set up, about four years ago, other professional schools have asked to create programs that blend on-campus and online study, said Nancy M. Kane, a lecturer at the university who directs the degree program in health-care management. "Once our program got launched, other people wanted to do similar things," she said. The School of Public Health was permitted to set up the program because its students are required to have medical degrees and have therefore already had a campus experience, said Ms. Kane. However, Ms. Kane said that the university should not do away with the residency requirement altogether. "If a person is never on this campus and never gets to be a part of a community, then I think that really does start to raise concerns about whether they're really getting a Harvard education," Ms. Kane said. http://chronicle.com Section: Information Technology Page: A36
|
Copyright © 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education