The University of Colorado Board of Regents on Wednesday voted to approve the establishment of a new Ph.D. degree in Comparative Ethnic Studies at CU-Boulder.
The board voted 7-1 in favor; Regent Vice Chair Sue Sharkey, R-Windsor, voted no. Chair Michael Carrigan was not required to vote and abstained.
The board also voted in favor of new master鈥檚 and Ph.D. degree programs in Materials Science and Engineering at CU-Boulder; they passed 8-0, with Carrigan again abstaining.
The new degrees were added to the more than 180 programs offered at the university.
The Department of Ethnic Studies was approved by the Regents on Jan. 1, 1996 and has graduate students with majors and minors in this field who have been successful in their pursuit of top-ranked doctoral study, law school, public health, educational degrees, as well as holding leadership positions across the country. The doctoral program is poised to fill a large need for tenure-track faculty whose areas of specialization are in interdisciplinary comparative ethnic studies.
Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) is a multi-disciplinary research interest shared by a broad array of CU-Boulder faculty in the Departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical, Energy and Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Chemistry, MCD Biology and Physics.
As a field, Materials Science and Engineering research funding is growing on both the federal and private funding fronts. There are expanding employment opportunities for individuals in in government, academics and the private sector. In Colorado, MSE is an area of private sector growth in wide variety of industries.
