Online Master of Science in Student Affairs and Higher Education (MS)
Student Affairs and Higher Education
Program Overview
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville online Master of Science in Student Affairs and Higher Education (formerly known as CSP) is a practitioner-focused, two-year degree for those who want to work directly with college students. If you’re drawn to student affairs — supporting students, building community, and shaping the environment where they grow — this program prepares you to do it well. Grounded in the foundations of student affairs, assessment, helping and supervision, and student development theory, it develops skilled professionals ready to step into student-facing roles at colleges and universities.
Built on the principles of the Council for Advancement of Standards (CAS), the program puts cohort, community, and professional preparation at the center, with discussion-based learning and close faculty relationships throughout. Coursework is primarily asynchronous, with some synchronous sessions, so you can stay connected while managing life outside school.
You’ll complete 30 graduate credit hours through a project/portfolio option. To bring it all together, you’ll build a professional portfolio as your culminating activity; a practical way to demonstrate your growth and readiness to future employers.
What You’ll Learn and Career Expectations
Rooted in both student affairs and higher education administration, this program helps you build the practical skills and professional judgment to serve students and institutions well. You’ll develop the ability to:
- Apply student development theory to real-world practice
- Assess programs and services to improve student outcomes
- Understand the administration, governance, and finance of higher education
- Navigate educational law and institutional policy
- Support student success through helping and supervision skills
- Connect classroom learning to on-the-job experience through an internship
Where this degree can take you
Higher education needs skilled professionals across many departments, and this degree prepares you for a wide and growing range of student and university service roles, including:
- Admissions
- Orientation
- Financial aid
- Academic advising
- Housing
- Athletics
- Disability services
- Career development
- Student activities and leadership development
- Institutional research and assessment
- Advancement and alumni relations
- Sorority/fraternity life
- International education
Wherever students need support to succeed, your skills will be in demand.
Admission Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree
- Minimum 3.0 undergraduate GPA
- Resume
- Three letters of recommendation, one must be from a faculty member
- Personal statement
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Featured Courses
This program has two focused areas of study: Student Affairs and Higher Education.
Designed to provide an understanding of topics related to current and future students in postsecondary education in the United States. Areas of emphasis include student characteristics, college choice and enrollment patterns, institutional types and environment, student development theory, retention and persistence, and student outcomes. Readings and assignments will relate to the organization and administration of services, considerations for student development and student success, and practical competencies.
Designed to provide the aspiring or current practitioner with a basis for departmental assessment to promote effective design, implementation, and strategic planning. It will include a rationale for assessment practice, an overview of formal and informal assessment efforts at multiple levels (unit/department, institution, professional), and an introduction to national standards.
Focuses on data, finance, and budgeting for United States (US) higher education (HE) institutions. It also focuses on a practical understanding of the essential terms and concepts, including methods and sources for gathering HE financial data, critical moments in US history that have shaped how HE is funded, funding sources, the role of the federal and state government in financing HE, the costs of HE, how these costs impact affordability, accounting methods, budget types, and budgeting processes.
Students will explore and develop conflict management, helping, and supervision skills. This approach will allow us to consider how and where conflict arises and better understand our role in addressing, mediating, and resolving conflict. Further, students will explore conflict management models, helping skills, and supervision skills associated with different sectors of human activity and current organizational practices for effective helping and supervision.
