Beginning Fall 2023, FAMU and FSU’s joint college of engineering will begin offering more doctoral programs in material sciences and engineering. The move follows an uptick in popularity of both programs in the professional and graduate industries.
After receiving approval during the Board of Governors’ meeting on Nov. 9, graduate students may begin enrolling in these new courses at FAMU’s campus as well as Florida State as this will be the first time a Ph.D. program will be offered at both universities through the administration’s joint college.
Dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Suvranu De, said he is excited to expand both doctoral fields and the college’s reach as the school looks to increase the growing accommodation of postsecondary education available to students across both universities.
“We’re excited to be able to improve upon the number of opportunities we can afford to our students,” De said in a release. “Especially in areas that are of increasing importance both in the field of engineering and interest within the college.”
A part of the new engineering degrees’ focus will be preparing students for work as materials engineers and scientists, architectural managers, engineering managers and post-secondary faculty.
Florida State’s College of Nursing has also added a new doctoral degree under a research-based program in what will be the first for the program. Historically FSU only offered it as a practice-based degree. Its new program will allow students to obtain a doctoral degree based on research studies done at FSU based on various health disparities that affect the northern parts of Florida, most specifically “HIV/AIDS prevention in adults and underrepresented youth.”
This comes after the university had also been awarded a $4.9 million grant by the National Institute of Mental Health for research aimed at decreasing the growing rate of HIV/AIDS infections among young men between the ages of 18-29.
“Having been approved for more education in the field of nursing dedicated to research purposes is a big step in not only improving our capabilities as a college at this university but allowing for more investment in areas of understanding and analysis by allowing us to delve deeper into health relations between communities and identifying new ways to best deal with afflictions that are very commonly seen,” James Whyte, professor and program director at FSU’s College of Nursing, said in a release. “Providing students with the opportunity to continue study in a research capacity will not only improve the general knowledge of what practices and procedures to engage in but also changes the number of people that become available to conduct these studies and continue building upon the thought processes that have can lead to life changing improvements in our society.”