Trustees endorse new degree program for statewide Purdue Polytechnic sites, OK oversight change in programs at IUPUI

HAMMOND, Ind. — Purdue University’s Board of Trustees on Friday (April 8) endorsed a new Purdue Polytechnic Institute bachelor’s degree to be offered at its statewide locations that would allow industry partners to aid in customizing degree options to better suit the educational needs of their employees.

During its meeting on the Calumet campus, trustees also approved administratively housing three Indiana University degree programs in Purdue schools on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus.

The Purdue Polytechnic Statewide network program would offer a bachelor of science degree in multidisciplinary technology at all of its locations outside of the West Lafayette campus. In order to quickly begin offering these customized industry degrees as flexible concentrations within the new degree program, the proposal requests expedited approval from the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.

Gary Bertoline, dean of Purdue Polytechnic Institute, said the new program dovetails with the transformation of the Purdue Polytechnic and was conceptually based on conversations with, and encouragement from, leaders of several Indiana companies, such as Chrysler, Cummins, Red Gold and Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc. (SIA).

“This program is revolutionary in that it features a flexible plan of study through which industry partners can suggest and influence, with faculty oversight and final approval, their own customized degree plans to meet unique and evolving workforce education requirements,” Bertoline said. “It epitomizes the close partnership between our statewide locations and their industry base as well as Purdue’s land-grant mission and our desire to meet the need for enhanced workforce education programs.”

Deba Dutta, Purdue provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity, said the new degree option would be viable in about 15 percent to 18 percent of cases in which industry-requested education and skill needs would be better served by more flexibility than is offered in current Polytechnic degree programs. Industry partners may choose to create “stackable” credentials within the degree, such as company-awarded “certificates of completion,” that would serve as immediate recognition and promotion mechanisms for student-employees and provide motivation for students to complete the degree program.

Students enrolled in the new program would still have to complete Purdue’s required University Core Curriculum and Polytechnic requirements, Dutta said.

The degree program would be delivered through blended and online methods at the nine current, and any future, Purdue Statewide locations and their extensions, which currently include Anderson, Columbus, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Lafayette (SIA), New Albany, Richmond, South Bend and Vincennes.

Trustees also approved the housing of IU degree programs offered on the IUPUI campus. The Ph.D. program in music technology will be housed in IUPUI’s Purdue School of Engineering and Technology, while the master’s and Ph.D. programs in applied social and organizational psychology will be housed administratively in IUPUI’s Purdue School of Science. The programs were approved by IU’s Board of Trustees, and the administrative housing was endorsed by Dutta and the Purdue University Graduate Student Council. 

Sources: Gary Bertoline, bertoline@purdue.edu

Deba Dutta, dutta@purdue.edu