January 18-19, 2001
NOTICE OF INTENT 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 specialty. 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:
C
Securities and commodities sales representatives
C
Financial sales representatives
C
Fee-only financial planners
C
Financial planners working for insurance, brokerage, banking, or other
financial services companies
C
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