The University of Montana and Montana State University-Bozeman will collaborate to offer a new master's and doctoral degree program in neuroscience. UM alone also secured approval to offer a doctorate degree in bio-molecular structure and dynamics, as well as another doctoral degree in anthropology, with an emphasis on cultural heritage studies.
The dean of the School of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences at UM said the new programs will help push the Montana university system "to the next level" of science.
Regents Mark Semmens of Great Falls said the new push for graduate-level research and development is exactly the push the state's economy needs. The regents have undertaken a self-assigned task to coordinate economic development in Montana through the university system.
"This is a very good, clean industry," Semmens said. "This is exactly the kind of thing the Montana university system can do for the state's economy."
But the regents expressed concern over the possible diversion of money from undergraduate programs to graduate programs.
"For $7,000, we can produce a nurse," said Regent Richard Roehm of Bozeman. "For quite a bit more, we can produce a doctor of anthropology."
Roehm said the university system should focus on work-force development. But Lois Muir, UM's provost and vice president for academic affairs, said graduate level research and development is another form of economic development the state should tap.
The vast majority of the funds for the neuroscience and bio-molecular doctoral programs will come from federal sources, UM officials said Thursday. The majority of the funds for the anthropology Ph.D. will come from state and federal grants, Muir said.
"There's very large growth in the federal monies for science research," Muir said. "That's the major source for the science programs."
Muir did promise to reallocate funds for one graduate student - at an annual cost of $24,000 per student - to each new doctoral program.
The collaborative neuroscience degree, which allow students to study strokes, depression and spinal cord injuries among other things, will be offered by both the Missoula and Bozeman campuses. Each campus plans to enroll about 10 students per year and operate on an annual budget of about $300,000. No new faculty will be hired for the program.
The bio-molecular doctorate to be offered at UM, where students will analyze the human genome among other things, will cost about $431,000 per year and will enroll 15 students per year. The anthropology doctoral program will cost about $100,000 when fully implemented and will enroll 18 students per year.
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