South Carolina State University’s English Program has received a $145,877 Humanities Initiatives at Historically Black Colleges and Universities Grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities (NEH).
The grant will fund the development of a 30-credit Master of Arts in English asynchronous online degree program in the SC State Department of English and Communications. Of the 17 applications submitted for this grant, only three projects were funded.
“This project began with exploration in 2014,” said Dr. Janice Hawes, chair of the Department of English and Communications and the project’s director. “Our investigation revealed that there was interest among students in an M.A. in English program, particularly one that was online.
“We have already drafted a curriculum for the new program, and we are ready to complete the development of the program. This opportunity is very exciting for us,” Hawes said.
A remote asynchronous graduate program promises to attract adult learners facing scheduling issues that make a traditional graduate program impractical. The SC State degree will offer a literature-based graduate degree program that provides the flexibility to complete learning activities and assignments when it fits a student’s busy schedule.
To date, the state of South Carolina does not have a fully asynchronous graduate English degree program.
