FHU To Offer First Doctorate Program
HENDERSON, TN—The Freed-Hardeman University Board of Trustees has approved the university‘s moving toward offering a Doctor of Education degree, which will be the university‘s first offering of a doctoral degree. The cohort program will be available in Memphis and Henderson, Dr. C.J. Vires, vice president of academics and enrollment management, said. Courses will be taught in a variety of ways: face-to-dace, online and hybrid. Assuming the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges approves the motion, the first courses will be offered during the fall semester of 2014. “A student who has completed an Education Specialist degree will be able to finish the doctoral program in three semesters,” Vires said. Approximately 300 teachers have completed the master‘s program during the past five years, and 114 have finished the Ed.S. programs. The undergraduate education program at Freed-Hardeman University is one of the university‘s largest, with nearly 200 students currently preparing to teach. FHU was one of two programs in the state to produce teachers with higher student achievement gains than veteran teachers in areas where adequate value added data are available, according to the “2012 Report Card on the Effectiveness of Teacher Training Programs.
