Master's Degrees by Interest Area

Master of Professional Studies

For professionals who want to move up in their careers NOW!

Specially designed for career-motivated adults, the Master of Professional Studies has three powerful benefits that will help you move up in your career...fast.

1. You can complete it faster.
   You can transfer in as much as 40% of the required credit hours using prior graduate level learning. That includes graduate courses, graduate-level training and even portfolio-documented learning gained from work experience. When you transfer in 12 credit hours, you can complete your degree faster!
2. You can customize it to your career goals.
   As a motivated professional, you probably are focused on your career goal. You have the ability to customize the Master of Professional Studies to your career goals by constructing an Independent Degree Plan - drawing from our graduate course catalog to create your customized major.
3. It has powerful professional skills built into the degree so you can use your knowledge to advance farther and faster.
   These are the kind of skills that employers tell us they need most today...skills like decision-making and personal growth. We've included them so you can apply what you learn immediately and use these skills throughout your career.

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The MPS curriculum contains three academic components.

A three-hour individualized learning portfolio course which extends throughout a student's entire enrollment period. The portfolio will include submissions which:

1. Support evidence of applied learning in declared occupational, personal, and/or learning goals (documented in the IP),
2. Demonstrate application of broad knowledge and experiential learning experiences such as action research projects or problem-based learning projects,
3. Summative reflection on what the program meant to them, what they learned, and whether they met their declared goals.

Portfolio: Master of Professional Studies provides successful learning strategies, a learning community, and an employer-facing portfolio throughout the Master of Professional Studies degree program. This course section will address: successful online learning strategies, artifact selection to provide evidence demonstrating declared goal accomplishment within the course portfolio, and portfolio development to demonstrate broad knowledge and experiential technique application addressing relevant practical challenges or opportunities. Prerequisite: Enrollment in MPSD.

Portfolio: Master of Professional Studies provides successful learning strategies, a learning community, and an employer-facing portfolio throughout the Master of Professional Studies degree program. This course section will address: utilization of reflective practices to inform continuing professional and personal growth and portfolio development to demonstrate broad knowledge and experiential technique application addressing relevant practical challenges or opportunities. Prerequisite: Enrollment into MPSD; MPSD 500A

Portfolio: Master of Professional Studies provides successful learning strategies, a learning community, and an employer-facing portfolio throughout the Master of Professional Studies degree program. This course section will address: application of successful online learning strategies, utilization of reflective practices to inform continuing professional and personal growth, artifact selection to provide evidence demonstrating declared goal accomplishment within the course portfolio, and portfolio development to demonstrate broad knowledge and experiential technique application addressing relevant practical challenges or opportunities. Prerequisite: Enrollment into MPSD; MPSD 500A; MPSD 500B

Prior Learning Assessment (e.g. graduate transfer credit, ELA, corporate articulations) up to 12 hours of graduate credit may be transferred into the MPS.

Up to 27 graduate credit hours of individually selected course credits which meet student declared goals documented in the student's Individualized Plan of Study (IP). Course selection may include certificate of completions. All pre-requisites for any course selected within an MPS student IP must be met.

Students applying for professional license or certification should verify the University's offerings meet the requirements with the professional organization.

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