Graduate school opens three new programs

UTRGV has begun two graduate programs this semester and will start a new doctorate in the fall, university officials say. 

The new programs are a doctorate of philosophy in business administration at the Center for Innovation and Commercialization Incubator in Weslaco, and a master of education in teacher leadership. A doctorate of philosophy in clinical psychology will begin in Fall 2019.

Even though one of the programs will begin in the fall, students can already apply for it.

“Graduate programs, basically, enable students to have more opportunities for employment and they also enable people to have higher salaries,” said Parwinder Grewal, executive vice president for Research, Graduate Studies and New Program Development. “The programs are available in other parts of the country and students can always go there, but, as you know, the culture in the [Rio Grande] Valley is such that people don’t want to go too far away from their families to get a higher education.”

Grewal said the school has many more programs under development, including business analytics.

“The more we can offer here, locally, the better it is,” he said. “Another reason [for the need of graduate programs in the Valley] is to enable opportunities to our local students, so they can actually acquire Ph.D.’s and become scientists, and become researchers … big things in
the world.”

Asked about the process to implement new graduate programs at the university, Grewal replied that first, there has to be a proposal.

“For the master’s program, we develop a proposal for a new program that starts with the faculty, then its department chair, dean and then it comes to me,” he said.  “We help the faculty provide a polished proposal, provide all the data and what is needed, and then we submit it to
UT System.”

Grewal said the idea for a new program can come from almost anyone.

“It could come from a faculty member, it could come from a dean, it could come from a department chair, it could be pointed out by a staff member, but then, it has to be developed, it has to be really analyzed that, yes, there will be a demand,” he said. “We do student surveys, we look at national trends and all that to see which program will actually grow here in the Valley.”

Grewal said the school is working to create programs that will give more job opportunities for students and to create selective Ph.D. programs with research-based faculty.

“The Ph.D. program development is a little bit more complicated,” he said. “First of all, we go through planning through the UT System, and if they approve the planning, then we submit a full proposal to the [Texas Higher Education] Coordinating Board. … It takes about two years for the whole process.”

The graduate school has also implemented several funding sources so students can attend graduate school.

For example, the admission fee will be waived “from now on” for all graduate programs, except for professional programs that have limited seating and a large number of applications.

“From now, we have decided that we will not have any application fee for the graduate college admission, except for the professional programs,” he said. “Professional programs are those that have limited seats. For example, the physician assistant program, where 600 or more students apply for that. So, in those programs, we cannot eliminate the fee because there is so much work involved in reviewing.”

Also, if a test, or tests, are needed to enter a graduate program, the graduate school will reimburse the money spent on those tests.

The school has also implemented The Graduate Dean’s New Student Enrollment Incentive Scholarship for students who finish their undergraduate within four years. These students will receive either $1,000 or $2,000 for their graduate semester, depending on the number of credit hours for which they register.

“We will most likely continue this … to every student admitted unconditionally,” Grewal said.  “This incentive was created for the Spring [2019] enrollment but it will continue for students at the undergraduate level who can graduate within four years. We are extending that to every semester, so that students can enroll on the graduate level.”

There are also other ways to help pay for graduate school, such as assistantships, fellowships, internships and jobs on campus.

“The past two semesters we have provided with about 70 fellowships,” Grewal said. “For example, this semester, every student has received either $1,000 or $2,000. Only those who were not admitted unconditionally did not get anything.

“There are also about 100 who would have gotten assistantships from the department, and then the 70 graduate presidential fellowships that we offer.”