The College of Health Solutions on the Downtown campus will add 10 new degrees, six undergraduate and four graduate, next semester.
The degrees include Medical Studies and Science of Health Care Delivery for undergraduates and Clinical Exercise Physiology and Public Health for graduate students, according to an email from Melissa Wenzel, the senior media relations officer for the College of Health Solutions.
The idea to implement new degrees has been developing for nearly two years, said Dr. Keith Lindor, dean of the College of Health Solutions.
“What we wanted to do is kind of put ASU (in a) position where it would be at the top of line for people who wanted a career in health,” Lindor said.
Lindor is overseeing the implementation of the new degrees and recruiting faculty to assist in developing the classes needed for each new degree. After launching the new degrees, the College of Health Solutions will look into expanding them online, Lindor said.
“One of the things about the University, it’s so dynamic,” Lindor said. “We’re always thinking of new opportunities and things to supplement what we have.”
As health care continues to evolve, the College of Health Solutions aims to be innovative with its new degrees to fit the changing needs of the health profession, Lindor said. To ensure the degrees will be in line with those goals, an advisory board will meet Tuesday to discuss each program’s development.
“Part of the reason for gathering them is to have them begin to advise us where they see the field is moving and what the training needs will be,” Lindor said. “We’re trying to stay ahead of where fields are moving.”
Wenzel said the idea of the new degrees has been popular with prospective students.
“They’ve had a lot of interest that has been great, so we’re just trying to get the word out about the new programs,” Wenzel said. “Some of these are new and innovative programs so I think people have been very, very excited about it.”
Health Sciences pre-professional freshman Sean Harding said the new degrees would probably be a major draw for students interested in health care, especially pre-med students.
“I feel like it opens up the science field here,” Harding said. “Because if they know what they want to do they can go in instead of going into a broad major. If you know what you want to do, you won’t have to do fluff stuff. I’d definitely look into it.”
Contact the reporter at pkunthar@asu.edu
