Sam Houston State University proposed 95 new courses and certificates at the Texas State University System (TSUS) Quarterly Board of Regents meeting.
TSUS held its two-day quarterly meeting on Feb. 15 at Lamar University in the Mary and John Gray library. During the meeting, they discussed several pressing matters for the system’s four-year institutions.
Some of the meeting’s larger proposals included the possible additions of three new degree programs at SHSU: a Bachelor of Arts in French, Masters of Fine Arts in Digital Media Production and Masters of Science in Nursing.
A request to change the semester credit hours in a Masters of Science and Bachelors of Music therapy were among the other proposals.
According to the proposal, the additional degree plans are being added after studies of several jobs sites such as Monster.com, Indeed.com and Simplyhired.com, which showed that there was an increasing demand for these areas of study, especially for professionals who are bilingual in French and English.
According to the proposal, this demand is projected to rise rapidly in the near future with the growing presence of American companies in France, such as AT&T, Bank of America, Citigroup, Hewlett Packard and JP Morgan Chase. French companies in the United States are also growing such as: Accor, Air France, Air Liquide, BNP, Credit Agricole, L’Oreal, Renault, Sodexo, Vivendi and several others.
The Masters of Fine Arts in Digital Media Production will take a larger focus on emerging media technologies. The new degree plan will have courses designed to create apps, utilize and explain sophisticated motion graphics techniques and plan, execute and edit complex multimedia productions. The new degree is designed to be on the cutting edge of media, and will be orientated toward the next generation of media creation.
The Masters of Science in Nursing degree program was proposed by the School of Nursing in the College of Health Sciences at SHSU. The degree plan will have a concentration in Family Nurse Practitioner.
The proposed MSN program will prepare the graduate for state licensure by the Texas Board of Nursing as an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN), a national certification by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) or the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners Certification Program (AANPCP). SHSU’s Bachelor of Science in nursing is already accredited by the Commission of Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). APRN education programs must be housed within graduate programs that are nationally accredited, and their graduates must be eligible for national certification used for state licensure.
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