College of Ed working to offer ‘double-degrees’ with NUTN

NUTNNIU and the National University of Tainan (NUTN) expect to launch a program articulation agreement this fall or next spring.

Students who participate in the program will earn two master’s degrees in educational research assessment – one from NIU and one from NUTN – as well as an immersion in a foreign culture that improves their marketability.

Matching NIU courses directly to corresponding NUTN courses is the next step before finalizing the curriculum and signing a Memorandum of Agreement, says Wei-Chen Hung, chair of the Department of Educational Technology, Research and Assessment.

“The program will take two years – 33 to 36 credit hours,” Hung says. “Students will either start at NIU one year and go the NUTN for the second year, or vice versa.”

Hung already knows many NIU College of Education students who are excited about the program.

“International experience is one reason why,” Hung says. “Second is the opportunity to get involved with different types of research projects, and also having the opportunity to understand the system in Taiwan. This broadens the scope in terms of education and in research assessment.”

The two universities became sister schools about five years ago. Discussions began then about a 1+1 program articulation at that time, Hung says, but an agreement never materialized.

After a new NUTN president took office last year, however, talks resumed.

Last November’s trip to Taiwan, which included Dean Laurie Elish-Piper and Associate Dean David Walker in the delegation, further fueled the conversations.

Some of the newest faculty at NUTN hold degrees from U.S. universities, Elish-Piper says, and speak English: “They get us,” she says.

Wei-Chen Hung
Wei-Chen Hung

“We both agreed we want to do something like this. Tainan has a strong education department. Every course they offer, we offer too,” Hung says. “What makes this beneficial is that we can show that the students had been working with diverse classmates and faculty, and we can broaden the scope of our program.”

Doing so underlines the college’s value of inclusion; the NIU College of Education cultivates a diverse learning community of people, ideas and points of view in which all can learn and grow.

“This unique 1+1 double-degree initiative is curricular innovation that we are employing to enhance one of our college priorities of intentional growth,” Walker said.

Meanwhile, double-degrees are not uncommon at NIU.

Business students, for example, can enroll in the Fast-Trak MBA Program to earn master’s degrees in international management. Students spend two three-week sessions at either the Bordeaux University School of Management in France or the ENAE School of Business in Murcia, Spain.

Graduate students in public administration can pursue double degrees through an agreement with the School of Public Administration and Policy, part of Renmin University of China.

Terry Borg, director of the NIU College of Education’s Office of External and Global Programs, envisions that list growing longer in the college. “We’ve opened the door,” Borg says.

For more information, call (815) 753-9339 or email etra@niu.edu.

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