July 24, 2008
U. of Illinois to Set Tuition for New Online Programs
The new online-education program of the University of Illinois, Global Campus, is offering three new courses of study. The university’s board of trustees is supposed to vote tomorrow on tuition charges for the courses, possibly providing additional revenue for the Global Campus program.
The multimillion program got off to a slow start early this year, with relatively few students enrolling. Officials said they had not yet ramped up their marketing and expected interest from students to increase.
One way to generate that interest is to offer more courses. Global Campus now will offer a graduate certificate in a biblical approach to mental health and graduate certificates in business-process management and information project technology management. Each program will begin enrolling students in 2009 and consist of three courses totaling 12 hours, the Daily Illini newspaper reports. Global Campus already offers two master’s and two bachelor’s-degree programs and four certificate programs. Most of these are in health care or education.
Tuition for the biblical-approach-to-mental-health certificate has been proposed at $405 per credit hour for in-state residents, or $4,860 for the whole program. Nonresidents would be charged $450 per credit hour. For the other two certificates, tuition has been suggested at $431 per credit hour, or $5,172 for the whole program for in-state residents. Nonresidents would be charged $479 per credit hour. —Josh Fischman
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Biblical approach to mental health??? Did I miss something from my Constitutional Law class? This sounds more like Bob Jones or Oral Roberts than the U. of Illinois.
— choirguy Jul 25, 10:33 AM #
I was seriously considering enrolling in a Certificate Program on Patient Safety at Illinois’ new global campus. I am a graduate of their medical school and now in the mental health field. But I find it troubling that they would include a biblical mental health certificate. I would rather see such teaching done through the various well run divinity and theology schools (where they actually have faculty with expertise at the interface of counseling and religion). What business the U of I has in this field, and who the faculty would be is enough to make me think twice about signing on to the Global Campus. As a state school, I think the U of I should think about the separation of church and state, and consider whether they would give other religions the same status that they seem to be giving the Christian faith.
— Jay Jul 25, 12:38 PM #
From what I can tell after a tiny bit of google research, the program substitutes stories from the Hebrew bible (not Christian, Jay) for the Greek mythology traditionally used as the basis for psychotherapy. Trading one religious base for another in psychotherapy hardly seems worth a call to arms to defend the constitution.
— Mark Jul 28, 10:33 AM #