{"id":14492,"date":"2019-11-19T16:47:52","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T16:47:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2019\/11\/19\/clarks-idce-department-accelerates-degree-completion-improves-program-accessibility\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T09:50:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T13:50:55","slug":"clarks-idce-department-accelerates-degree-completion-improves-program-accessibility","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2019\/11\/19\/clarks-idce-department-accelerates-degree-completion-improves-program-accessibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Clark\u2019s IDCE Department accelerates degree completion, improves program accessibility"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n

Earn a master\u2019s degree in 12-to-15 months<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n With accelerated programs, students reap the benefits of IDCE’s transdisciplinary curriculum and bring new skills to their careers as quickly as possible.\n

Responding to the shifting needs of graduate students, Clark University’s International Development, Community, and Environment Department<\/a> (IDCE) announces changes to four of its five master’s degree programs. Beginning in fall 2020, the M.A. in Community Development and Planning<\/a>, M.S in Environmental Science and Policy<\/a>, MHS in Community and Global Health<\/a>, and M.A. in International Development<\/a> programs — which currently take two years to complete — will be updated to enable students to earn their degree in 12-to-15 months.  Not only will students reap the benefits of IDCE’s transdisciplinary curriculum, they also will be able to bring new skills to their careers as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

\"Professor
Director Edward Carr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“These changes allow IDCE to retain its unique status as a problem-centered, transdisciplinary academic unit while aligning our degree programs with the urgency of the global challenges we are preparing students to address,” says Edward R. Carr<\/a>, director of IDCE. “Our degree programs will be more accessible and attractive to students who are at the start of their careers as well as to professionals who might be looking to make a career change. As we expand our online offerings, part-time degree completion will become a more viable option for some prospective students.”<\/p>\n

A major change to the program is a reduction in the number of units required for a degree from 12 to 10. Each program retains its academic rigor of core courses and methods\/skills requirements while preserving the cross-program, problem-centered, classroom experience that makes IDCE’s curriculum distinctive and allowing students to complete their degrees in 12-to-15 months. While most students will choose to take three courses per term and a single course during the summer, some may pursue a more ambitious schedule, taking four courses each during the fall and spring terms and a field experience course in the summer.<\/p>\n

IDCE has further adjusted its curriculum to create three separate degree tracks, designed to provide students with options for completion of an advanced degree, including:\n<\/p>\n