GSE to offer degree in Singapore

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Contributing Editor

In response to a new training priority identified by the Singapore Ministry of Education, the Graduate School of Education (GSE) will offer a 36-credit hour Master of Education Degree in School Counseling through Singapore's Center for American Education (CAE) in Singapore, beginning June 15.

The 18-month-long program will be identical to the one currently offered at UB, except that the courses will be in a modular, concentrated format with distance-learning components. It will include 27 credit hours of classroom instruction and nine hours of fieldwork and practicum.

Between 20 and 30 students will be enrolled at a time, beginning the program together and graduating as a group. UB faculty members will travel to Singapore to present a series of lectures for each two-month course module. Janice DeLucia-Waack, associate professor in the Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology, is directing the program.

Tim Janikowski, associate professor and chair of the GSE Department of Counseling, School and Educational Psychology, said that while Singapore's Ministry of Education identified a need for professionals trained to help students cope with emotional and psychological problems, there is no formal school-counselor education available in the country.

The CAE, a subsidiary of the International School of Singapore, in turn contacted UB's Office of International Education.

"UB has a very good reputation among educational institutions and governments in Southeast Asia," Janikowski says, "thanks largely to the work of Stephen Dunnett, our vice provost for international education. As a result and with the assistance of GSE Dean Mary Gresham, we were able to work with the ministry and the CAE to get this program online very quickly."

Most of the program participants are expected to be teachers in the Singapore educational system and expatriate students seeking graduate credentials in educational counseling.

The CAE will provide classroom space, marketing and computer technology, and will collect tuition and fees, Janikowski noted. UB will provide instructors on-site and on the Internet, as well as oversight of the program. Online course material will be sequenced and supported by Blackboard-UB Learns, which offers discussion boards, email, virtual classrooms, digital drop boxes and faculty consultation.

Janikowski said the Singapore program will provide an opportunity for faculty members and students to deepen their understanding of culturally sensitive curricular material and is likely to attract overseas students to the department's doctoral programs. The course material, he added, will be modified when needed to insure its cultural relevance to the Singapore population.