UMass Dartmouth announces new Honors College and expands scope of College of Nursing to add Health Sciences for the fall

At its August 2 meeting, the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees approved a new Honors College at UMass Dartmouth and expanded the scope of the College of Nursing to add Health Sciences. Both are effective this fall.

The Honors College will provide an innovative, inter-disciplinary, and research-oriented community that will attract and graduate highly qualified students. The College will be integrated with the university’s whole academic organization rather than as a freestanding College.

The College will provide students with a highly rigorous educational experience that emphasizes high-impact enrichment opportunities. In addition, the Honors College will maximize collaboration between students, between students and faculty, and between students and the community.

“The Honors College is designed to create a unique opportunity for those students of exceptional talent and motivation,” Provost Mohammad Karim said. “These students will be among our university’s role models in undergraduate research and community engagement.”

Additionally, the College of Nursing and Health Sciences will better position the university to respond to the need for a team-based health care workforce in the community, the region, and beyond. The new structure will bring together the departments of Medical Laboratory Science, Community Nursing, and Adult Nursing.

“This is an interprofessional education model,” said Kimberly Christopher, Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. “It will allow both our nursing and medical lab science students to build professional knowledge, respect, and empathy for each other’s roles in order to achieve the highest quality of patient care. Students can collaborate in simulated experiences and learn from each other. This will create stronger health care teams.”