Graduate Program: Program Design and Evaluation (MA)

General Information

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Program/Degree
Program Design and Evaluation (MA)  
Program Description

The MA in Program Design & Evaluation is a research in social change degree. This MA provides graduate-level education for students and community partners across sectors who seek to advance and study solutions related to the “grand challenges” or “wicked problems” of our time.

The fully online program will equip students with knowledge and skills to design and implement community-focused and research-based solutions to problems situated in social systems, and to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of those solutions.

The degree is designed for currently employed professionals and students; with 7.5 week cycles leading to a completed degree within 24 months. Students will immerse in the process of identifying, understanding, and researching key problems of our time with focus on creating viable, sustainable solutions and examining evidence of impact.

This research in social change degree program is designed to provide students with transferrable skills applicable across industry sectors, populations, and challenges or problems. Students will gain cross-cultural competencies, community engagement skills and applied experience while establishing competency in evidence-based problem identification, solution development, monitoring and evaluation and translation of results for program and policy evolution.

Cross-Cutting Themes

  • Structural Focus: The challenges of our time are structural in nature. This requires preparing students to understand the structures that produce adverse individual, social and environmental outcomes and inequities.
  • Community Engagement: Communities are authorities and possess capacities that can be strengthened and supported to address the challenges of our time. Students will become proficient in applied, community-based, research translation and solution identification to further strengthen the Academic-Community partnership.
  • Ethics: Ethics of conducting human research and evaluation, and of working with diverse populations to create change.
  • Social Justice:  Students will be prepared to understand and address inequities produced by problems or challenges in order to advance social justice.
 
Department/Academic Unit(s)

College of Social & Behavioral Sciences

The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences’ mission is to advance research on people, engage new generations of scholars in the process of discovery through undergraduate and graduate teaching, and share discoveries with the community through public education and outreach.

SBS is home to twenty-one schools, departments, research units, and outreach centers, and our programs are some of the most highly ranked in the country, with a collective research prominence rivaling that of the best public higher education institutions in the country. The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences is proud to serve a vital function in the State of Arizona as well as in the Southwest and US more broadly.

The program is housed in the Human Rights Practice Programs (HRTS) within SBS.

 
College

College of Social & Behavioral Sciences

 
Campus where offered

Arizona Online - Online

 
Contacts
Admissions Contact
Beth E Meyerson
520-626-5908
Graduate Program Coordinator
Beth E Meyerson
520-626-5908
Director of Graduate Studies
Beth E Meyerson
520-626-5908
Graduate College Degree Counselor
Megan Jia Mcnulty-Luoma
520-626-9962
 
Tuition and Fees
Please refer to the UA Bursar's Office Tuition and Fees Calculator for up-to-date information about tuition and fees. 
Please refer to the UA Registrar's's Office Special Course Fees for up-to-date information about special course fees. 

Admissions Information

Admissions Requirements

Admissions Contacts for this Program

Director of Graduate Studies: Dr. Beth Meyersonm dgssirow@arizona.edu  520-626-5908

Graduate Studies Coordinator: Ms. Nikole Justvig GC-SIROW@arizona.edu ;(520) 621-3839

 

Admissions requirements are consistent with UA online MA or MS degrees. No specific coursework is required for admissions. A 3.0 grade point average is required for the MA degree admissions. No specific coursework is required. For additional UArizona Graduate Admissions requirements, go to https://grad.arizona.edu/admissions

 
Standardized Tests

Admissions requirements are consistent with UA online MA or MS degrees. For additional UArizona Graduate Admissions requirements, go to https://grad.arizona.edu/admissions

 
Funding Opportunities
The Academic Unit has not provided this information. 
Admissions Deadlines

Domestic Applicants:

  • Fall: June 1 (For fall 2022 only), then March 1 after 2022
  • Spring: September 1

International Applicants:

  • Fall: March 1
  • Spring: September 1
 
International Conditional Admission

International applicants will not be considered for conditional admission by this program.

Other Information
The GRE Institution Code for The University of Arizona is 4832

Completion Requirements

Minimum Credit Units

30 

Core Coursework Requirements

Students will complete five foundation courses (15 credits). Students will also take in any order 4 additional courses with 2 required courses and 2 electives (12 credits), followed by a required 3-credit capstone.

Foundation Courses:

  • EVAL 500 (3) – Seminar on Identifying and Characterizing Challenges or Problems
  • EVAL 501(3) – Informed Solution Identification
  • EVAL 520 (3)– Planning, Implementation Science and Scale Up
  • EVAL 521(3) – Monitoring and Evaluation
  • EVAL 602 (3)– Research Dissemination and Translation to Facilitate Change

Other Required Courses

  • EVAL 551 (3) – Community-based Participatory and Action Research
  • EVAL 552 (3) – Culturally Responsive Engagement with Diverse Populations
  • EVAL 698 (3) – Capstone (Completed last)

 

 
Elective Coursework

Elective Courses (pick 2)

  • EVAL 550 (3) – Applied Research Methods and Analysis
  • EVAL 650 (3) – Building and Negotiating Partnerships and Coalitions
  • EVAL 651 (3) – Development of Coalitions to Facilitate Change
  • EVAL 652 (3) – Practice of Project Management in Community Settings
  • HRTS 520 (3) -Community-Based Participatory Action Research for Human Rights
  • HRTS 521 (3) – Community-Based Participatory Action Research for Gender-Based Violence
 
Additional Requirements

No additional requirements

 
Student Handbook

Please refer to the Graduate Student Handbook for students who are pursuing this program of study.

 
Persistent link:
Last revised 16 Feb 2022