In addition to educating more than 50,000 undergraduate and graduate students each year on campuses in Camden, Newark and New Brunswick, Rutgers University instructs tens of thousands of lifelong learners through programs online and at satellite facilities around New Jersey, often in partnership with other higher education institutions.
In the last year alone, approximately 45,000 non-traditional students took advantage of Rutgers’ continuing professional education and lifelong learning programs – including more than 2,300 online and off-campus courses and course sections available to non-traditional students across New Jersey and beyond. Lifelong learning initiatives at Rutgers are coordinated by the university’s Division of Continuing Studies.
ONLINE DEGREE PROGRAMS
In the last year alone, approximately 45,000 non-traditional students took advantage of Rutgers’ continuing professional education and lifelong learning programs – including more than 2,300 online and off-campus courses and course sections available to non-traditional students across New Jersey and beyond. Lifelong learning initiatives at Rutgers are coordinated by the university’s Division of Continuing Studies.
ONLINE DEGREE PROGRAMS
- College of Nursing:
- R.N.-B.S./M.S. – Primarily an online program with supervised practical study, this initiative enables registered nurses to earn a Bachelor of Science degree with a master’s degree option to accelerate professional development.
- Ph.D. – In 2006, the College of Nursing introduced the university’s first online Ph.D. program – attracting candidates who want to pursue a doctoral degree in nursing but who cannot attend a traditional classroom setting because of family and work demands.
- School of Communication and Information: Students seeking a master’s degree in Library and Information Science can complete their entire degree online within two to three years. The program supports concentrations in School Library Media Studies, Digital Libraries, Public Libraries and General Studies.
- Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick: The school’s Master of Accountancy in Governmental Accounting degree is the only totally online program of its kind in the country. The graduate accounting program conducts core courses on campus over one semester, allowing students to gain employment experience while completing their requirements online. The emphasis on early workforce experience has helped more than 130 graduates become partners and principals in the Big Four accounting firms.
- Graduate School of Education: The school offers an online Master’s of Education degree in Learning, Cognition and Development. The 30-credit curriculum includes a capstone independent research experience under the guidance of faculty advisers. The curriculum provides a specific set of courses in the Educational Psychology Department with available electives in Special Education.
ONLINE COURSES
- Mason Gross School of the Arts: The school’s online instruction unit had 2,000 enrolled students for the 2009-2010 academic year, more than any other school at Rutgers. Courses available online for credit have included “Introduction to Music,” “American Popular Song,” and “Introduction to Music Theory.” Plans are under way to expand online offerings.
- School of Arts and Sciences:
- Astrophysics – The Department of Physics and Astronomy offers an online course in X-ray astrophysics to students with a high school mathematics background. The course combines instruction on X-ray sources in space with exercises that use authentic data just received from NASA satellites and the same analysis software that professional scientists use.
- English – Rutgers’ Writing Program, within the Department of English, offers required writing and advanced courses in business and technical writing, including the online offerings “Scientific and Technical Writing,” “Writing for Business and Professions” and “Writing in the Professions.”
- Spanish – The Department of Spanish and Portuguese offers “Elementary Spanish” online.
- Jewish Studies Online – This program of the Allen and Joan Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life offers free, noncredit online courses that allow participants to learn at their own pace with Department of Jewish Studies faculty. Launched in 2006 with 250 students taking “The Bible and History,” the Jewish Studies Online program now offers four online courses and has educated more than 2,500 students in 41 states and on six continents.
- School of Management and Labor Relations:
- Labor Studies and Employment Relations – Undergraduate courses offered online include “Development of the Labor Movement,” “Social Movements and Work” and “Diversity in the Workplace.” Online graduate courses include “Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace” and “Self Development for Professional Success.”
- Human Resource Management – Two online courses, “Employment Law” and “Distance Learning,” are available for graduate students.
- School of Environmental and Biological Sciences: The school offers online courses in “Animal Nutrition” and “Horse Management.”
OPPORTUNITIES FOR NON-TRADITIONAL STUDENTS
- Partnerships with Community Colleges: Beginning in 1997, Rutgers has established partnerships with Atlantic Cape Community College; Brookdale, the County College of Monmouth; and Raritan Valley Community College, Branchburg. These partnerships provide New Jersey residents additional opportunities to earn bachelor’s degrees while staying close to home.
Through these partnerships, Rutgers offers bachelor’s degree programs in such disciplines as Criminal Justice, Hospitality Management, Liberal Studies, Political Science and Psychology. The university also offers graduate courses in Education, Liberal Studies, Nursing and Social Work, as well as a certificate program in Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace.
- The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, with its continuing and professional education programs, has relationships with nearly every New Jersey state agency. Examples of its educational outreach include:
- Environmental management, audit and stewardship programs
- Food safety and public health training
- Landscaping certificate programs (in English and Spanish)
- Bioterrorism training for the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services
- A statewide home gardeners school.
- Rutgers Cooperative Extension operates through the Agricultural Experiment Station and serves as a “classroom without walls” to deliver Rutgers research to communities in all 21 New Jersey counties. Programs are wide-ranging – from encouraging families to develop healthy eating and fitness routines and teaching courses in personal finance to helping municipalities set up waste-composting systems.
- Executive Master of Public Administration: The Rutgers Executive MPA program provides managers with the skills needed to advance to executive leadership positions. Offered by the Rutgers-Camden Department of Public Policy and Administration in Burlington County and the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers-Newark, these programs provide weekend and online learning for working professionals.
- The Rutgers Institute for Management and Executive Development is a leading provider of business training and professional development in the region and across the nation. Through the institute, the Rutgers School of Business-Camden seeks to strengthen the leadership and management capabilities of individuals and organizations through a wide portfolio of certification programs, on-site seminars, and online training modules. The institute also offers a program designed to provide unemployed New Jersey citizens with access to online certification.
- Executive MBA: Offered by the Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick, this program can be completed in 20 months. Classes meet all day on alternate Fridays and Saturdays to enable participants to work and attend classes full time. Each term begins with an intensive week of classes in residence; participants also have the opportunity to interact with international business leaders during a two-week summer program in China. The course material is re-engineered each year to reflect changes in the global business environment.
- Mini-MBA™: The university’s Center for Management Development, which pioneered the mini-MBA concept, offers a portfolio of Mini MBA’s focused on: Business Essentials, Finance Essentials, Strategic Marketing, Biopharma Innovation, Strategic Healthcare Management, Leading Strategic Innovation, Biopharma Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship.
Mini-MBA programs are scheduled to fit the time requirements of busy executives in locations across New Jersey or on site at corporations. Most programs can be completed in 12 weekly three-hour sessions at night. Some programs are offered in an accelerated one-week format.
In addition to providing access to the latest developments in business, participants may earn MBA or other graduate credits toward their continued academic education at Rutgers.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR VETERANS
- Servicemembers Opportunity College: Many military veterans are able to apply their training experiences toward Rutgers degree requirements thanks to the University College at Rutgers-Camden, a member of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges Consortium.
Membership in the SOC Consortium, which includes approximately 1,800 institutions that offer programs to servicemembers and their families, is based on Rutgers-Camden’s provision of a range of services specific to the needs of servicemembers, including the recognition of military-based training programs for academic credit.
The University College at Rutgers-Camden utilizes credit recommendations provided by the American Council on Education (ACE) College Credit Recommendation Service. Training experiences from any of the services and from other select organizations are routinely reviewed by ACE, which provides standard college credit recommendations. Rutgers-Camden typically accepts credit recommendations that are consistent with existing transfer policies. The result is that many students are able to apply their training experiences to degree requirements at Rutgers.
- Since 2002, Rutgers has granted $7.6 million in tuition waivers for more than 1,300 National Guard members.
- Under the new GI Bill, more than 400 student military veterans enrolled at Rutgers have been offered transition support through orientation events and a comprehensive mentoring program.
INITIATIVES FOR ADULT LEARNERS
- Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning – Available to New Jerseyans over the age of 50, the Osher Institute offers noncredit, no-grade, no-pressure courses in Highland Park, New Brunswick and Freehold taught by active or retired high school or college instructors. A college degree is not necessary to enroll. Ten-week courses are offered in such areas as literature, art, health and science, languages, religion, philosophy and music. In 17 years, the program has grown from 80 students taking four courses to 1,400 students enrolled in more than 80 courses.
- Senior Citizen Audit Program – Created by the Rutgers University Board of Governors in 1974, this popular program enables New Jersey residents, age 62 and above, to attend classes on a noncredit, tuition-free basis when space is available.
PROGRAMS FOR INCARCERATED WOMEN
- The three-year pilot Prison to Community Project, known as P2C, under the auspices of the Sloan Center on Innovative Training and Workforce Development of the Rutgers Center for Women and Work, offers hundreds of incarcerated women their first comprehensive exposure to the world of computer-based learning.
- Community 101, created by Rutgers’ Center for Behavioral Health Services and Criminal Justice Research, is a 14-week, skill-based, practice-focused course. It is backed by on-site, full-service Community Centers, with resources and peer staff, to prepare prisoners for their return to society.
Media Contact: Steve Manas
732-932-7084, ext. 612
E-mail: smanas@ur.rutgers.edu