By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Bowling Green State University has added to its offerings in health care.
The university trustees on Friday approved the creation of a doctorate in physical therapy and a Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration.
These continue the university’s build out of its health care related programs, including founding a School of Nursing.
The doctorate in physical therapy will be a two-year hybrid program. The university is working with consultant Evidence in Motion to develop the doctorate.
The new doctorate addresses a growing societal need as the population ages, said Provost Joe Whitehead.
The doctorate was approved by Faculty Senate at its December meeting.
The program’s two-year format distinguishes it from the usual three-year program, Whitehead said. Students will take their classroom work online, and their clinical work at a still to be determined location.
This will enable the program to recruit students nationally, Whitehead noted.
The program will require 12.5 new faculty positions. The director and four faculty have already been hired. Four staff positions and a number of adjunct faculty will also be hired.
The program is scheduled to begin in fall 2022. The goal is to enroll 100 students per cohort. All 12.5 new faculty positions will be filled by spring of 2022. Four faculty in addition to the director have been hired with another due to be hired soon. The program will also have four staff positions.
The Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration replaces and upgrades a specialization in the College of Health and Human Services.
Whitehead said there is a growing demand for management professionals for health care entities.
The specialization now has 77 students. They will be able to transfer to the new degree program. At the December Faculty Senate meeting, it was stated that those students, 60 of whom are juniors or seniors, would have the option of completing the specialization.
The new degree program is set to begin this fall.
The trustees, as part of the annual revision of special course fees, set the fees for nursing students.
Chief Financial Officer Sheri Stoll said the new nursing program fees amount to $31 more than those currently charged by the soon-to-end nursing consortium with the University of Toledo. But BGSU will not charge “a separate college fee” of $404 per semester, which UT does.
Also, the new fees approved included $4,000 for training on the flight program’s new jet simulator located in the expanded space at the Bowing Green Flight Center.
This is an important advancement for the aviation program, Stoll said. The fee actually goes to private Bowling Green Flight Center that does the flight training for the program. Stoll has explained that the university collects the aviation fees and passing them through to the flight center with no additional charge, so students can use financial aid to pay them.
