The Higher Education Leadership Program is designed to prepare students for important leadership roles in colleges and universities, government, professional organizations and other entities of higher education that focus on the application of knowledge, research and theory to improve educational practice.

Built on a practitioner-scholar model, the program engenders a firm understanding of the many factors contributing to the academic and personal success of individual college students and to fulfillment of the academic mission of the institution that seeks to serve those students and society. This understanding is grounded in theory, research skills and analysis, and in the principles of enrollment management, a holistic approach that considers effects on students, families and community of every component of the higher education experience, from recruitment through matriculation and beyond.

The University of Miami is a nationally recognized leader in both the study and practice of enrollment management. Ours is an expansive curriculum taught by a faculty of scholars and administrators from the School of Education and the Division of Enrollment Management, which offers a working laboratory for enrollment management activities. Open to both full- and part-time students, the program offers many evening classes.

Minimum requirements for the program, which leads to a doctor of education degree in higher education, include 84 graduate credits or 60 credits above the master’s degree. Areas of study are composed of the foundations of higher education, including its unique structure and administration, history, and college student diversity and maturation; the core issues facing today’s higher education leaders in curriculum, law and public policy, and student affairs; and research skills and applications. Also required: Studies in an external supporting academic field devised by the student in consultation with a faculty advisor; a practicum in higher education that expands on the student’s knowledge and experience; and a dissertation project, through which students can address issues and problems in the higher education workplace.