Academic Divisional Structure
The purpose of the area of Academic Affairs is to offer each student an intensive general educational experience coupled with professional education in the value-centered liberal arts tradition, preparing the student for a professional career and/or graduate or professional school. The academic program at Voorhees University is administered through the Division of Academic Affairs.
The Division of Academic Affairs is comprised of three Academic Schools: School of Business and Entrepreneurship, School of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, and School of Science, Technology, Health and Human Services. Under the leadership of Deans, the faculty in the academic department is responsible for developing, assessing, and implementing rigorous and relevant academic programs.
Students have the opportunity to choose a major based on his or her academic interests and career aspirations. A major in any area constitutes a prescribed group of courses designed to assist the student in mastering specific content in preparation for a career or entrance into graduate or professional school. A University minor or concentration is a set of courses that a student takes to complement or somehow enhance the value of his or her major and is a designated career professional pathway for students. A minor or concentration constitutes a prescribed group of courses (15-credit hours) in a specific area. Students interested in a minor should contact the appropriate Dean.
Professional Certificates
Certificate program offerings at Voorhees University is truly representative of the University’s tagline and mantra: Voorhees University: The Next Level of Excellence.
Certificate programs have the potential to change mindsets, improve lives, and uplift the ambition of stakeholders, and their families. The overall benefits of certificate programs include: resume building, career-directed education, facilitation of career changes, and assistance for individuals with busy lives. The Center of Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University found students who earned a post- secondary certificate added almost $117,000 in lifetime earnings over a high school diploma or those without degrees. Depending on the field of study, tuition for certificate programs is generally cheaper than full-fledged degree programs. With ever-rising costs of degree programs, certificates are a great alternative for those looking to further their education without needing to pay off student loans for decades afterward.
“Certificate programs of study have been identified as important to adult learners who are focused on workforce development and are concentrated in programs designed to prepare adult learners for specific workforce roles” (Suzanne Buglione, Principal, Community Build). Stephen Rose, Senior Economist, Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce states that a certificate is a great program for high school graduates in the middle to below-middle of the skill level. These are people that can tremendously benefit from certificates, especially if they get a job in-field. And they can potentially turn this success that they’d had in the certificate program to then getting a degree. A third of the people who get a certificate will go on to get a two- or four-year degree, thus, exponentially impacting their families and the community.
Relationship to Core Strategic Goals and Objectives
- DEMONSTRATE ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE and DISTINCTION
To provide and promote a learning environment of excellence and distinction centered on an engaged superlative faculty and staff committed to fostering intellectual growth, developing relevant skills and competencies, offering experimental learning reflective of students interests, and producing competent workers and leaders for globally diverse world.
- FACILITATE STUDENT SUCCESS
To create and enhance a unique, student-focused learning environment that ensures excellence, creativity, and innovation in strategically planning and implementing initiatives to increase diversity, measures of retention and graduation, career exposure and placement, spiritual growth, and leadership development
Develop programs to enhance critical and creative thinking skills of students by:
- Creating additional online courses and online degrees;
- Incorporating critical thinking skills into course instruction;
- Conducting program reviews through innovative classroom and coursework deliverables
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