|
Education: thriving at a higher level
(Frederick News-Post, The (Frederick, MD) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 18--Higher Education in Frederick City and County is alive and well. Hood College, Frederick Community College and Mount St. Mary's University report that enrollments are higher than they have been in many years. Frederick is indeed fortunate to have such top notch institutions. All three schools are keeping pace with current trends in higher education, planning for expansions and initiating new programs.
Enrollment at Hood College has increased considerably during the last five years. The implementation of the College's strategic plan was the major force driving enrollment growth at both graduate and undergraduate levels. Four years ago the campus five residence halls were one-half occupied. Today they are at full capacity. Currently overall enrollment is 2121 students, the largest in Hood's history.
Now in the second phase of their strategic plan, Visioneering Our Future: Hood 2010, the College aims to strengthen academic excellence, hire new faculty and implement new programs. In academic programming, Hood has begun the Masters degree in Thanatology, a Masters in Computer Science and has brought back its undergraduate music major. In the future, we will likely see the implementation of a Masters degree in Bioinformatics and a continuation of strong relationships with Ft. Detrick and the Frederick Technology Incubator, which is housed on the Hood campus.
The freshman class in 2005, was one of the largest in the school's history and had one of the highest academic profiles in four years. Hood's vision for the future includes building more housing for students, in the form of a living-learning community; a building that would house both classrooms and residences. In terms of enrollment growth, Hood prefers to remain a small college with a maximum of about 2300 students and freshman classes in the range of 275 to 300 students.
Frederick Community College is the fastest growing community college in the state, with a 9 percent increase in enrollments just this spring. Last fall FCC had 4822 students enrolled and expects that it will see more than 5000 in fall, 2006. With such growth, physical space is a prime concern. To begin to address the space problem., the college has increased the number of distance learning courses, freeing up more classrooms for face-to-face classes and making courses more convenient for students with schedules too busy to allow them to attend in person. Another space management tool has been the addition of hybrid classes, where students attend class in person on some dates and online at other times.
Scheduling, however, is not the final answer to FCC's space problems. The college plans to break ground this summer for a small administration building, allowing administrators and faculty to be centralized and freeing up other space for teaching. Two more buildings are in the plans a few years ahead.
FCC is very proud of its transfer programs which allow students to begin their college careers at the community college level and move on to four year schools with greater ease. The college recently initiated the Associate of Arts in Teaching degree, which permits students to enter the four year school as full juniors. Most recently Frederick has been in conversations with the University of Maryland System to respond to emerging needs in industry with the goal of establishing a state-wide program in engineering. Obviously the community college is taking the lead in developing and adjusting the curriculum in science and mathematics transfer programming.
Together, the three Frederick colleges are 358 years old. Mount St. Mary's University accounts for 198 of those years. To celebrate the bicentennial in 2008, the Mount is planning multiple events across the country including academic symposiums and galas, as well as filming a documentary about the history of Mount St. Mary's from 1808 to present day. The Bicentennial kickoff events will be in August, 2007 and will run through October, 2008.
Like the other colleges The Mount is also experiencing significant growth in enrollments. In fall 2005 the entering class was the largest class in the history of the school with evidence that next fall that record may again be broken. Due to this tremendous growth Mount St. Mary's has plans to build an additional residence hall, with an expected groundbreaking in July. Construction of an Athletic Stadium is already underway on the campus.
New academic programming available to students in the Mount's Division of Continuing Studies in Frederick includes a partnership with approximately 40 colleges and universities across the United States and Ireland, in which students may complete selected Online courses provided by primarily faith-based institutions. This program provides an added flexibility to adult learners with busy schedules. Continuing Studies undergraduates may also earn a bachelor's degree in Communication Studies with a Concentration in Public Relations. While lower level courses may be completed at the community college, upper level courses in this program are completed at both the Mount's Frederick and Emmitsburg campuses.
In August, the new Master of Arts in Liberal Studies expects to welcome its first students. Building on Mount St. Mary's strengths in liberal arts, this program will provide specialized seminars aiming to sharpen the students' perspective and social conscience. The degree program allows the students to gradually focus on a topic through interdisciplinary analysis.
Frederick is privileged to have such fine institutions of higher education in the area and it is obvious that none of them are letting the grass grow beneath their feet.
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
