Western Michigan University and the Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) are launching an online and classroom-based educational leadership doctoral program starting this September 2014. Also collaborating are the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Superior Education (MECYT).
The program has enrolled 23 faculty, administrators and professional staff of Dominican universities and schools from kindergarten to high school.
The four-year program seeks to prepare individuals to hold leadership and management roles in K-12 or higher education via a hybrid learning format and with teaching support from WMU faculty.
Two times during each semester, faculty from the Department of Educational Leadership, Research, and Technology in WMU’s College of Education and Human Development will travel to Santo Domingo for one week to teach and provide advising to the program’s students at the host university, UNIBE.
The program also includes a study abroad component, in which students enrolled in the program will travel to WMU in July each year for three weeks of intensive study and exploration of US educational systems.
The program’s development was coordinated by Dominican Juan Tavares, director of international admissions and services in WMU’s Haenicke Institute for Global Education, and Dr. Donna Talbot, chair and professor of the Department of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology.
Since 2008, WMU has had a close relationship with the Dominican Republic. Some 400 students from the D.R. have studied at WMU over the past six years.
For more information about the new initiative, contact Dr. Donna Talbot in the Department of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology at (269) 387-3896 or donna.talbot@wmich.edu.