Northeastern president Joseph Aoun predicts massive online courses will bring a shakeup of higher education

Boston Globe, November 17, 2012

By Joseph Aoun, President, Northeastern University 

As President Obama develops his second-term agenda, his administration will no doubt focus on a range of higher-education priorities, including affordability, attainment levels, and career preparation. Yet as important as these issues are, something more fundamental is happening: We’re witnessing the end of higher education as we know it.

This transformation is being brought on by “MOOCs” — massive open online courses being offered for little or no cost through entities like edX, Coursera, and Udacity, which aggregate classes from multiple universities onto a single computer-based platform. Millions of people are already utilizing them to tap into higher learning.

In the process, they’re spurring a shakeup of higher education — with dramatic implications.

Most significantly, MOOCs are causing higher education to shift from a vertically integrated model to a horizontally integrated one. For centuries, higher education has been a vertical enterprise: Its core functions — knowledge creation, teaching, testing, and credentialing — all have been housed within colleges and universities. MOOCs disrupt this model by decoupling teaching and learning from the campus on a mass scale.

Read full article here.

From the Academic Dean: Work-Life Balance? Where Does School Fit in?

Work-life balance?  Now I’m thinking about adding school into the mix?  What can I do?  

I am a teacher, I am a mom, I have older parents I must assist, and I don’t have time to cook dinner….how will I have time for a higher degree?

I am an engineer, I travel a lot with my work, I coach my son’s baseball team….how will I have time for a higher degree?

The answer:  Northeastern Seattle

With Northeastern Seattle’s focus on on-line and hybrid graduate education, busy adults who have a desire or need to pursue a higher education degree can be successful.  With high quality programs that provide flexibility in scheduling and learning, you can do it.  Need to jump start your career or want to move in a different direction?  Northeastern Seattle is making it a possibility with high quality, flexible, and convenient programs.

Still worried about the challenges of juggling it all? 

Try these four steps to balancing work and graduate school, according to Forbes on-line: 

1)   Get Prepared

2)   Research Financial Options

3)   Add Some Strategy

4)   Don’t Forget Yourself

Work smarter by choosing a program that complements your job or can enhance your job opportunities; or even one where you can solve problems or complete tasks within your job with school opportunities. 

And remember the motto, “if you need something done, ask a busy person.”  The motivated student is often the busy professional, parent, and volunteer.

Angela L.E. Walmsley, Ph.D., Associate Dean – Academic

MS Regulatory Affairs team attends RAPS Conference

Representing NU’s MS Regulatory Affairs at the 2012 RAPS conference are Program Manager Seth Robertson (left) and Assistant Director of Co-Op Steve Rando (right). The annual conference was held this year at Seattle’s Convention Center.

Northeastern University’s MS Regulatory Affairs team sent four people from our home campus in Boston to the national Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS) conference, which was held this year in Seattle, including Senior Assistant Dean and Director of MS Regulatory Affairs Eric Kupferberg and Faculty Member Steve Amato.  RAPS was well attended this year and we made numerous connections with not just potential students but also future instructors and co-op providers.  In addition to the conference the regulatory affairs department hosted a reception at the WBBA facility in Seattle announcing Northeastern’s presence in the area.  We also took part in the annual Regulatory Educators Summit where educators from around the country discussed their experience in the growing field of regulatory affairs education.  We look forward to next year’s conference back in Boston!

The Regulatory Affairs program within the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University began with 13 courses in 2004; the program has expanded to 43 courses, each touching on a critical aspect of the field. The core of the program is based on the central regulatory challenges of drugs, medical devices, and biologics, with additional emphasis on clinical trial ethics and conduct as well as the legal decisions that are constantly being revised by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory bodies. In addition, the program has developed over thirty elective courses focusing on the advanced aspects of regulatory work.

The program derives its inspiration for new courses from several sources, including: review of new FDA guidelines and rulings; legal actions and court challenges; industry product trends; industry expert suggestions; global regulatory developments; and, examples of increasing market importance of emerging economies. In response to the identified need for more business/marketing-oriented regulators, the program introduced a category of courses which deal with the marketing, strategic business, and project management needs of the field.  In conjunction with developing regulations governed by the European Union (EU), China’s State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO [DCGI]), Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), Australia, Japan, Canada, and others, a number of courses detailing regulations in global areas were created. Additionally, the curriculum has been expanded to include courses such as emerging product categories (to cover up and coming regulations), generic medications, quality management systems (QSRs), and supplier-risk management.

Our curriculum is intensely practical, with six courses on regulatory documentation processes and a capstone practicum course.  It is also current; covering such topics as post-market surveillance, pharmacovigilance, and managing international clinical trials.  There are three areas of program distinction for NU’s regulatory affairs curriculum.  Among the handful of graduate programs in the United States offering a Master’s  degree, most offer three or four courses on medical devices: NU offers fourteen.  Most of the competing programs will offer two or three courses on international topics; NU offers thirteen.

Most instruction in regulatory affairs, whether delivered by a private commercial entity or university, focuses on regulatory compliance.  In contrast, NU’s program in regulatory affairs emphasizes the belief that decisions involving which products to develop and how to develop them are both strategic and regulatory in nature.  Regulatory considerations can inform a company’s plan to create a sustainable competitive advantage.  As such, our curriculum and instruction provide regulatory professionals with the language and understanding needed to effectively interact with a company’s strategic planners.  Courses in this area include:  biomedical intellectual property management; strategic planning and project management for regulatory affairs professionals; advertising and marketing biomedical products; regulatory considerations for start-ups; and, product development from concept development to market success.

NU’s regulatory affairs courses are offered both on campus and online.  Students can complete their degree entirely online, as each of the programs forty-three courses are offered at least twice a year online.  All of the six required core courses are offered every term online.  As a result, the program features students from across the United States and from thirty-four foreign countries.

NU is a global leader in online learning.  With more than two decades of experience in delivering distance education, NU maintains the highest possible standard for online course development, course delivery, and faculty training.  NEU is committed to the principle that online courses can and should meet the same standard of academic rigor as any face-to-face class.  Our online courses are asynchronous, meaning that no single student needs to online at one particular moment.  Instead, our learning platform allows students to participate any time of the day, with the requirement that they be logged-on for a 60-90 minute period per day.

NU believes that graduate training in regulatory affairs is ideally suited for online learning.  Our online courses are highly interactive, allowing students to interact with the faculty and their fellow students on a daily basis.  To learn more about the Seattle Campus Master of Science Regulatory Affairs, please contact Gina Takasugi at g.takasugi@neu.edu.

November 5: The Emergence of Personalized Medicine: A Revolution in Healthcare

Dr. Leroy Hood developed the automated DNA gene sequencer, which paved the way for the successful mapping of the human genome. A leading advocate of P4 Medicine, Dr. Hood’s research aims to revolutionize individualized patient care by integrating biology, technology and computation to understand complex biological systems. 

Join us for a discussion with President Aoun and this acclaimed innovator who has founded more than 14 biotechnology companies. Earlier this year, Dr. Hood was featured on an episode of “NOVA” entitled “Cracking Your Genetic Code.”  

Monday, November 5, 2012

2p.m Pacific/5 p.m. Eastern

The event will be streamed live on Northeastern Facebook page and via the video stream webpage.

Submit questions through social media for the Q&A session via Twitter using #NUSpeakers and facebook.com/northeastern. 

This event is part of the Profiles in Innovation Presidential Speaker Series.  To learn more about this series, click here.

NYTimes: In Seattle, Virtual University Will Have a Physical Campus, Too

By KIRK JOHNSON

New York Times: October 29, 2012

SEATTLE — With name tags clipped on and PowerPoint at the ready, officials from Northeastern University invited prospective students in one night last week for a peek at a new extension campus, 2,500 miles from the school’s home in Boston and about as far northwest as you can get in the lower 48 without swim fins. It is a trend that many colleges and universities have embraced in recent years — remote campuses to extend the brand and the flow of tuition checks.

But there was more going on here. And all the new dean, J. Tayloe Washburn, had to do to demonstrate that was walk to the bank of windows in the meeting room where the prospects and the staff had congregated and throw wide his arms: the headquarters buildings of the tech giant Amazon.com filled the view under a gray Seattle mist.

“We’re very aware we’ll be sitting across the street from 12,000 Amazon workers,” said Mr. Washburn, a prominent Seattle lawyer and former chairman of the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. 

Read the full article at NYTimes >>

Seattle Times Editorial: Northeastern’s branch campus a welcome addition

A Seattle branch campus for Northeastern University offers welcome help boosting the ranks of residents with graduate degrees.

By Seattle Times Editorial

Northeastern University’s expansion into Seattle is noteworthy, chiefly for its potential to broaden the pipeline of local talent in science, technology, engineering and math fields.

A branch campus thousands of miles from Northeastern’s Boston roots is an astute read of this area’s labor needs.

The private, nonprofit university’s plan to offer only graduate-degree programs in Seattle fills a niche for industries looking for employees with advanced degrees. The Puget Sound region has one of the largest concentrations of residents with bachelor’s degrees, but only 13 percent of local professionals have graduate degrees.

This region does not measure up well against the rest of the country. In 2008, Washington ranked 42nd among all states in advanced-degree production — 8.4 graduate degrees per 1,000 residents. But the national average is 12.8 such degrees per 1,000 residents.

Read the full article on Seattle Times here >>

From the Seattle Times: Northeastern U’s Seattle branch to open in Jan. near Amazon

Northeastern University of Boston will open up a branch campus in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood in January.

Northeastern Helps Advance Global Health Work in Seattle

Four Critical Items to Look For in a Project Management Program

In a recent survey by US News & World Report, Project Management was ranked one of the most desirable skills required by businesses, just behind leadership and business analysis.[1] The demand for high level project management skills has exploded in the past few years. Practitioners have taken note and are ramping up their skills to meet the demands of the workplace. In a past survey by the Project Management Institute (PMI^®) of PMI^® members, 61,000 PMI^® members said they intended to pursue an advanced degree and 32,500 of those respondents said they intended to pursue it in project management.[2]

As practitioners are looking to return to school, they should be thinking of a few critical items. First, they need to find a program that will equip them and challenge them to standout in the workplace. With nearly 700 colleges and Universities in the U.S. offering either a certificate or advanced degree in project management, the selection process can be daunting. However, would be students can rely on PMI^®’s Global Accreditation Center (GAC) to certify those programs that have met PMI^®’s rigorous accrediting standards. In the U.S., currently, only 20 programs have achieved this level of accreditation through PMI^®.  

The program must also be flexible enough to meet the schedule of working professionals. Traditional graduate education doesn’t fit the life of today’s working professional. A program needs to adapt to the schedule of the student, not the life of the student to the academic calendar. Programs offering online and on-site degree completion tracks offer the most flexibility, meeting schedule demands and learning preferences and needs.

Third, the program must be practically focused. A strong set of theoretical principles and guidelines undergirds project management practices, but those theories cannot be the sole focus of the program. A program must be centered in the workplace. Course lectures, class activities, assignments, and other course work must show how one actually manages the work of the project. This is most often accomplished through a high level of class interaction that focuses on the real world experiences of the class. Therefore, classes are more interactive and collaborative than the freshman lecture hall most remember from their undergraduate days. The emphasis must be placed squarely on real world problems and applications.  

Finally, the program must have a track record of success with alumni, providing them with a high degree of satisfaction and providing necessary career services. The alumni network and career services are two of the major areas that a program can continue to service its graduates, and these two areas are often overlooked during the program selection process. However, a strong alumni network can lead to a number of career opportunities, and a successful career services department can provide the necessary support for advancing one’s career throughout one’s professional life.

Key Facts:

• Northeastern’s Project Management program is GAC accredited
• Graduates of Northeastern’s program receive 1,500 hours of PM experience toward earning the PMP^® credential.
• Northeastern University – Seattle offers fully online or hybrid programs
• Six-Week courses offers flexibility for working professionals
• Professors have extensive professional experience
• Practical focus is hallmark of Northeastern’s program
• Northeastern University’s Career Services was ranked #1 by Princeton Review in 2012
• Results of Northeastern’s PM Alumni Survey
 
  • 93% stated degree opened job opportunities not available before
  • 91% stated that program improved job performance
  • 93% stated program increased confidence in the workplace

Northeastern President Joseph Aoun to serve as Keynote Speaker at Seattle Chamber Regional Leadership Conference

Each year the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce hosts a three-day Regional Leadership Conference with over 250 business governmental labor and environmental leaders outside of Seattle.  Held again this year at the Suncadia Resort, this conference allows leaders to get together to brainstorm and hammer out ways to grapple with regional challenges in education, affordable housing, global health, transportation and other areas.  The keynote speaker serves a key role in framing the discussion and serving as a catalyst for the group.

This year’s conference on October 17-19 will focus on the themes of education, infrastructure and creation of jobs.  Northeastern President Joseph Aoun is a national leader in the higher education area and currently serves as Chair of the American Council of Education.  He will speak on the state of higher education to an audience which is eager to hear new approaches on higher ed.  Due to the national recession, both K-12 and higher education institutions have experienced a severe decline in funding just at the time that the student demand for higher ed programs has increased.  President Aoun will also address why Northeastern University selected the Seattle region as part of its future, and how the university is already getting engaged in a range of regional issues.  One example is STEM learning for K-12.  Tayloe Washburn, the Dean of Northeastern – Seattle, will be moderating a session at the Regional Leadership Conference which intends to identify the top 2-3 actions the business community can take in the STEM area to make progress in student performance and outcomes. 

Contact Dean Washburn at t.washburn@neu.edu if you would like more information on these STEM initiatives.  He has been working with representatives of Boeing, Microsoft, the Center for Inquiry Science, local superintendents, and local and state education experts.  Christos Zahopoulos from Northeastern’s STEM Center has also provided great ideas to this group based on Northeastern’s long-term STEM initiatives with the Boston public schools.