March 22-23, 2001

 

ITEM 110-2002-R0301 ����� Authorization to Offer an Option in Family Financial Planning under the MS Degree in Health and Human Development: Montana State University - Bozeman

 

THAT: ���������������������������������� The Board of Regents of Higher Education authorizes Montana State University - Bozeman to offer an Option in Family Financial Planning under the MS Degree in Health and Human Development.

 

EXPLANATION:� ��������������� The Great Plains-Interactive Distance Education Alliance (known as the Great Plains-IDEA), a consortium of six land grant universities, including Montana State University, Bozeman, developed an on-line family financial� planning curriculum leading to a master�s degree in family financial planning with sufficient course work included to allow students to take the examination to become a Certified Financial Planner.� At MSU, the degree is a new option under the existing MS degree in Health and Human Development.� The program consists of forty two (42) semester credit hours.� The reason for establishing this option as a consortium program is that no single university in the region (Mid-West or West) has enough appropriately trained PhD faculty to conduct a high quality� masters level program in this speciality.� By joining together, the consortium has available approximately 12 PhD-prepared faculty who are trained in family and consumer economics and who can teach the courses and provide advising to the masters level graduate students.� This program represents the first time at Montana State University that an entire masters degree has been delivered under a consortium arrangement and using distance delivery technology.

 

The national demand for family financial planning professionals is estimated to be well above average, according to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, a publication of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.� The Handbook identifies the following jobs available for workers with a background in financial planning:

 

�           Securities and commodities sales representatives

�           Financial sales representatives

�           Fee-only financial planners

�           Financial planners working for insurance, brokerage, banking, or other financial services companies

�           Company human resources divisions working with pension plans, retirement plans

 

No degree program that combines a master�s degree plus the course work to allow the student to take the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) exam exists in the U.S. except for this Consortium program.

 

����������������������������������������������� Proposed Starting Date: Autumn 2001

 

ATTACHMENT������������������� Proposal