UWM Expands Scope of Global Studies Degree Program

MILWAUKEE – After years of collaborative planning and course development by faculty members at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), the novel bachelor’s degree program in Global Studies is offering five tracks, putting a global wash on disciplines as diverse as business, architecture and education.

The joint-degree program began with “Global Management,” a partnership between the College of Letters and Science (L&S) and the Lubar School of Business to blend undergraduate business education with foreign language and cultural competency. The degree now is shared by five UWM schools and colleges.

This semester, students can choose from four additional tracks for the bachelor’s degree:

Global Cities – L&S with the School of Architecture and Urban Planning
Global Classrooms – L&S with the School of Education
Global Communications – L&S with the School of Information Studies
Global Security – L&S with the College of Health Sciences

Combining disciplines in the College of Letters & Science with pre-professional studies has made the program unique among other Global Studies programs across the country.

“Our goal was to ensure this interdisciplinary degree would be both innovative and sustainable. We planned to build the program on UWM’s strengths and faculty members’ particular interests,” said Patrice Petro, senior director of the UWM Center for International Education (CIE) and a coordinator of the program.

Once the core curriculum for the Global Management track was approved in 2003, the program began accepting majors. There are now three graduates of the Global Management track.

The program has benefited from two Title VI grants from the U.S. Department of Education.
The federal funding allowed CIE to provide course development support to individuals and multidisciplinary teams of faculty members while also holding annual conferences and scholarly meetings supporting UWM research and teaching on globalization themes.

About 130 declared and intended majors are currently enrolled, said Andrea Joseph, CIE academic advisor.

Current enrollments by track:

Global Management	78 (17 declared, 61 intended)
Global Cities	1 (intended)
Global Classrooms	1 (intended)
Global Communications	17 (1 declared, 16 intended)
Global Security	28 (6 declared, 22 intended)
Undecided	30

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