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UT Chattanooga plans to offer doctoral program in Kingsport

KINGSPORT — The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga soon will offer a doctoral program at the Kingsport Center for Higher Education.

UT Chattanooga is launching the program, called Learning and Leadership, in January 2010.

“The focus is to promote the development and understanding of the leadership process in a variety of different organizations including K-12 education, higher education, health care administration, business and industry, nonprofits, etc.,” Gloria Gammell, program director for UT at the KCHE, said in a recent e-mail outlining the program.

“There are several courses on adult learning theory because the students will be leading adults,” Gammell said.

The program will address how adults view change.

“Change has negative connotations. Yet if the same ‘change’ is seen as innovative, it’s a positive,” Gammell said.

She said delivery of the program will incorporate synchronous and asynchronous online experiences, face-to-face meetings and directed study. The face-to-face meetings will occur at the KCHE, probably on selected Fridays or Saturdays.

David Rausch has been hired by the UTC College of Education to be the coordinator and the “face” of the program in Kingsport, which is the first place the program will be delivered off the UTC campus.

In a phone interview Thursday afternoon, Rausch said the program has existed about five years at UTC, looking at learning and leadership together.

“If behavior changes, a person has learned,” Rausch said of effective leadership.

The delivery of the Kingsport version of the program is specifically designed for the higher education center and the Tri-Cities while keeping consistency with what is offered at UTC.

“It’s actually blended” between traditional online and weekend or night format post-undergraduate programs, Rausch said. “It was designed for Kingsport.”

Rausch said he and other faculty will be in Kingsport at the beginning, middle and end of the coursework, and in addition he will be in Kingsport most weeks. The coursework takes two years, and with the dissertation work the entire degree takes some people three years, some people longer, Rausch said.

“David and I have scheduled some on-site information sessions at local hospitals, school systems and businesses,” Gammell said. “We are also hosting an information session at the KCHE on Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 5 p.m.”

The meeting is open to the public, and Rausch will bring some faculty and current students for a question-and-answer session after the presentation.

The KCHE, located at 300 W. Market St. at the corner of Clay and Market streets, has more than 900 students this fall.

Northeast State Community College operates the facility and offers the first two years of core courses for those seeking four-year degrees, as well as selected associate degrees and certificate programs.

Participating universities and colleges then offer their bachelor’s, master’s and other graduate programs, with degrees being in the name of the university offering the program. King College of Bristol, Lincoln Memorial University of Harrogate, Carson-Newman College of Jefferson City and the University of Tennessee system are offering degrees at the KCHE.

The center is part of the developing Academic Village downtown, part of an education initiative that helped the city win a 2009 Innovations in American Government Award from Harvard University.

The $15 million, three-story facility is 54,000 square feet of classrooms, laboratory and office space, with 18 classrooms — both traditional and computer-lab oriented — two interactive television rooms similar to video conferencing, two lecture rooms, an eating area, a computer lab and a 260-seat auditorium.

For more information on the new UTC doctoral program e-mail ggammell@tennessee.edu or david-rausch@utc.edu.

For information on the KCHE and a full list of degrees offered there, or to be offered there, go to www.kingsporthighered.org.