NMC hosts first doctoral degree program

The Northern Marianas College and the University of San Diego (USD) has again collaborated to offer local educators the opportunity to pursue post-graduate program.

After the first batch of 25 local educators completed their masteral degree program on educational leadership last year, six are currently pursuing a doctoral degree this summer at NMC.

According to NMC Provost Roy Fua, together with students from Guam, American Samoa, Palau, Indonesia, Taiwan and Singapore, the six from Saipan are pursuing the final degree with emphasis on leadership.

College Lab School Director Chas J. Algaier, Julie Heath, Ed Camacho and other NMC officials took the opportunity to pursue this degree without necessarily going off-island.

Last year USD required all its students to attend the summer program in San Diego. However, students from the Pacific and Asia could only attend the summer program at NMC.

Fua said USD presented this proposal to NMC almost two years ago since there was a need for post-graduate education in this part of the Pacific. “There was a great need to get higher education for people from the Pacific rim,” he said.

Although students and teachers communicate through the Internet, actual classroom sessions with professors for six weeks are scheduled during summer, while students also break into groups to pursue certain cases.

Their completion would qualify them to assume key positions in universities and colleges like as deans, vice president or president, he said.

The entire doctoral degree program is estimated to cost each student around $21,000, he added.

Fua, however, is unsure if the group from NMC had received local educational assistance to pursue the degree.

“But as I understand, no one is getting assistance,” he said, adding, “this is a lifelong dream to get a doctoral degree and they have committed to go after that.”

The government’s difficulty to maintain funding for local education grants had questioned the reported assistance given to students pursuing masteral degree program last year.

The masteral program arranged by NMC and USD was estimated to cost $11,000 for each student, an amount reportedly paid by the government through the Educational Assistance Grant.

Fua said although he wanted to see government support for post- graduate studies, he would take the opportunity to complete the program with his own money if the local budget could hardly even help students pursuing Associate in Arts.