Academic Program Proposal

Date Proposal Activated	Institution and Proposal	Degree Awarded	Academic Program Name	Objection Deadline	MHEC Final Action	Final Decision Date
	Goucher College Proposal	Master of Arts (M.A.)	Applied Policy Analysis	2/12/2023	Recommended	2/28/2023
Applied Policy Analysis Program Description
The purpose of the program is to provide students with a diverse data-analysis toolkit that can be applied to various forms of data and questions. Specifically, students will be trained to analyze, visualize, write about, and discuss real-world problems with a wider audience. Students will take courses on data analysis, data management, data visualization, economics, human behavior, and policy evaluation. Students will also have <br>the choice to focus on specific policy areas such as education, health, social, and environmental policy. This program will also prepare students to apply that learned toolkit to work in a variety of data-oriented jobs in the public sector, private industry, policy institutes, and non-profit organizations to help provide data-oriented solutions to real world problems. The program will consist of eight core courses, three electives, and <br>one capstone course. These courses will be offered entirely online with the option of in-person classes for some core courses. This hybrid format will give students the flexibility <br>of choosing the modality that best fits them, considering that 68% of students now prefer this approach.