SRU's graduate programs feature education, health care opportunities
Slippery Rock University offers 41 graduate programs split into 30 master’s programs, four doctorate programs, six certifications and four endorsements.
Offered both in person and online, the university’s programming aims to fill needs, especially in education and health care, chief enrollment management officer Amanda Yale said.
Twenty of SRU’s 41 graduate programs are based in education. Most of the programs focus on a specific subject or age group in elementary, secondary and special education. The other graduate education programs teach school counseling, environmental education and online education. The two doctorate programs prepare students for leadership positions in administration.
SRU’s administration also addresses the need for health care workers in Butler County with its College of Health Professions graduate programs. The college now offers programs in health information and management, occupational and physical therapy, music therapy, physician’s assistant studies and public health.
Within the 41 programs, some certifications stand alone, and others are awarded with master’s degrees. One is a post master’s certificate.
“We know coming in that about two thirds of our students are interested in getting even more than a baccalaureate at some point in their life,” Yale said. “Those are the adult workers coming back to us.”
When SRU began expanding their graduate and undergraduate programs around 2010, administration revisited the university’s history as a teachers’ college by focusing on the nationwide teacher’s shortage and the College of Education, Yale said.
About 37 of SRU’s graduate programs can be completed wholly or partially online.
Last year, the university’s College of Education awarded 277 graduate degrees or certifications, the College of Business awarded 53, and the College of Liberal Arts awarded 42, according to its Office of Analytics and Decision Support.
The College of Health Professions and the College of Engineering and Science, which was previously the College of Health, Environment and Science, awarded 262 degrees or certifications last year.
