In late 2024, the college received a $4.99 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Community Impact previously reported. Mohr said that the grant is specifically to help with the creation of new health care-adjacent programs.
“It’s a five-year grant, so built into that grant is time for us to really do the planning, really interface with external constituents so we know that what we’re putting together will be valuable,” Mohr said.
In a nutshell
Mohr said during the first portion of the master’s program, students will take the same classes and then branch off into the specialized tracks. The specialized tracks will include:
- Medical/health care artificial intelligence
- Health care technologies
- Regulatory affairs
- Clinical sciences
Mohr said that while the master’s students may not be in the same classes as the medical students, faculty will likely teach both groups. SHSU is working to hire up to four new faculty and staff who would provide oversight to the program while also teaching medical students.
“There will be clinical relevance to everything that [the master's program students are] doing, even if they’re not actually going to be engaging in clinical care,” Mohr said.
The goal for the program is for it to be a one-year program, but Mohr said that may change as the college goes through the approval process for the new master’s program.
“I think our hope is that we want to get people out into the workforce as quickly as possible, but we also want to make sure that there’s enough time and credits that go into this program that make it truly useful both to the trainee and to the industries that hire them,” Mohr said.
Diving in deeper
Mohr said that the college is anticipating having around 40 students per class in the master’s program, which may increase to 60 students.
“We’ll probably start smaller and grow from there,” Mohr said.
The program will include both online and in-person classes, as well as an in-person internship, Mohr said. The internship will entail a capstone project, where students will use the knowledge from their classes to apply it to a project at their internship site.
“I think [that capstone project] is going to be helpful both to the business and they will gain hopefully something useful out of that capstone, and hopefully it will also bring our trainees closer to job opportunities,” Mohr said.
The cost
When it comes to the funding of the master’s program, Mohr said the grant is there to pay for its development and to subsidize the first couple of years of the program.
“This program is being set up by the grant to be a self-sustaining program,” Mohr said. “This is not something that we’re expecting to have infinite years of grant funding.”
SHSU officials are also following any changes made to the U.S. Department of Education. University and COM leaders have made the commitment that if future years of grant funding is not provided by the federal government, the program will continue to move forward, Mohr said.
“Nobody is going to lose their job if the Department of Education no longer funds this grant,” Mohr said.
Also of note
Mohr said SHSU sees the new master’s program as one that will eventually have multiple pathways: one pathway for students specifically interested in the specialized tracks; one pathway for medical students who could get a useable credential in between applying for medical school; and a pathway for medical students who decide not to go to medical school.
“In 30 years of being in academic medicine, it’s always really bothered me that we get students that don’t make it to the end of medical school and they walk away with nothing other than huge debt and no more usable skills,” Mohr said. “This would be the third pathway where students could come back and still benefit from what they got out of medical school and apply it to the master’s program as well.”
Stay tuned
Mohr said SHSU is spending a year talking to companies in relevant industries, which include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies alongside hospital and clinical systems.
“We’re continuing to have those high-level discussions to determine how to utilize those four tracks and fill in the details to be immediately applicable for hiring industries,” Mohr said.
