Ed.D. Program's First Year Focuses on Entrepreneurship and Global Higher Education

Ed.D. students spent a week studying in the Dutch city of Haarlem this summer.

Every six weeks, the locus of activity at the Institute moves 64 miles west from Athens, when our Atlanta-based Ed.D. students convene.

The program, which enrolled 16 senior managers in higher education in January, pays particular attention to the entrepreneurial university and commercialization in higher education, as well as internationalization and the global context. Each of the participants has a significant portfolio of responsibilities, with the group representing a range of both institution types and functional areas, making an advanced and intensive curriculum possible.

In developing the program, the Institute faculty focused on coherence. “In its focus on policy, strategy, and management and emphases on commercialization and internationalization, the Atlanta Ed.D. is reflective of the Institute,” notes Associate Professor J. Douglas Toma, who directs the effort. “We resisted the temptation to attempt to be all things to all people. But for those senior managers interested in the increasingly entrepreneurial nature of universities and colleges, both in the U.S. and worldwide, we are a very good option.”

The program also “keeps us honest” as a faculty, Toma indicates. The concentrated nature of the format and knowledge of higher education management among the participants requires those leading discussions be focused and relevant. In addition, an outside colleague, often a leading scholar from abroad, is present at each session, serving as discussant and broadening the perspectives offered.

The seven regular members of the Institute of Higher Education faculty teach the majority of the program, with visiting faculty teaching in a few specialized areas. The participants complete the curriculum as a group over six consecutive semesters — 42 ten-hour modules.

Dissertation work is structured and systematic, supervised by an IHE core faculty member, and unfolds over the six semesters of the program. The portion of the curriculum devoted to research concentrates on building expertise needed not only to complete the dissertation, but also to supervise and evaluate the research applied in managing complex organizations.

Each meeting, Charles Knapp, an Institute faculty member and former University of Georgia president, convenes a discussion on leadership with a significant figure associated with higher education or a related area. Guests have ranged from the lieutenant governor of Georgia to former UGA head football coach and athletic director, Vince Dooley.

The program admits a cohort every other year (the next in January 2012) and includes two experiences abroad. The first was in June, in Haarlem, the Netherlands, during which the group worked with colleagues from CHEPS, the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies at the University of Twente. Next summer, participants will have a choice of visiting Australia, China, or South Africa to work with colleagues there and meet with senior officials in a variety of institutional and governmental settings.

“I knew that my lack of international experience was a shortcoming that needed to be addressed if I aspired to hold positions of increased responsibility in the future,” Kathy Pharr, assistant vice president for finance and administration at UGA offered. “The session in Haarlem was outstanding. It was an eye-opening experience, and I eagerly await the opportunity for a similar first-hand introduction to the rapidly advancing Chinese system next summer.”

John Mitchell, chief executive officer of the Golden Key International Honor Society agrees. “In my role of working with administrators at universities around the globe, I hoped that the UGA program would better prepare me for meaningful interactions with vice chancellors, university presidents and the like around the world. I have not been disappointed.”

“I find myself getting excited as the next class session approaches and as the next international trip gets closer,” says Jeff Delaney, chief information officer at Savannah State College. “The end of the program will be met with mixed emotions — happy to be a graduate, but sad that it is over.”