Museum studies degree approved

The Board of Regents approved a proposal last week to create a degree-granting program in museum studies at UNM.

Museum studies will offer a Master of Science or Master of Arts degree, as well as undergraduate certification in museum studies. The program is awaiting approval by the State’s Higher Education Department.

Graduates from the program will be qualified for careers such as outdoor education in local, state and federal parks, and mid-level careers in field biology, fine arts, anthropology and natural history, according to the proposal.

James Dixon, director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology and author of the proposal, said the program builds on the graduate minor in museum studies UNM currently offers.

“The graduate minor focuses primarily on art and art history,” Dixon said. “This graduate degree is a much broader interdisciplinary program.”

Dixon said students would take 15 credit hours in courses that include anthropology, biology and earth and planetary science and 18 hours of museum studies courses. The museum studies minor currently offered requires nine hours of course work and six credited internship hours.

Dixon said the new program will be “budget neutral.”

“(That) means we’re not asking the state for any new resources,” he said. “The dean of the College of Arts and Sciences has committed to funding a faculty line for the program, and there will be a tuition differential which will help fund the remainder of the program.”

Dixon said private contributions also helped fund the program, and museums and organizations across the city have committed to support graduate students with fellowships and internships.

According to the proposal, the total cost of the program for the next two fiscal years will be approximately $174,000, with $42,000 coming from tuition differential revenue.

The tuition differential is a fee only students enrolled in the museum studies degree program will pay in addition to UNM tuition and fees. Students can enroll in the program beginning in fall 2012.

Dixon said the program will put UNM in a unique position in the museum studies field.

“The true advantage of the program is that there’s really not one in New Mexico or across the country,” he said. “There’s no clear path to the museum profession, and this will allow students to advance to this particular profession with state-of-the-art training.”