Jefferson College will add a new degree program for the first time since 2016, President Dena McCaffrey announced at a Dec. 2 Board of Trustees meeting.
The new degree – an associate of science in biological sciences degree – recently gained approval from the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education, McCaffrey said.
Chris DeGeare, vice president of instruction, said an associate of science in biological sciences degree is useful to pursue several fulfilling careers.
“This is specifically a transfer degree intended for students wishing to pursue professional degrees in the biological, laboratory and health sciences,” he said. “Absolutely, these are booming fields, including biotechnology, pharmacy and medicine.
“We’re trying to prepare students to transfer directly into programs in the field (at four-year universities) in the fields I mentioned.”
DeGeare said Jefferson College officials are happy to increase the number of degree programs offered at the school.
“We’re excited to provide an opportunity for students to transfer to these advanced professional programs,”
DeGeare said.
DeGeare said with the addition of the associate of science in biological sciences degree, the college will soon offer 26 degrees.
“We will start promoting it and enrolling for it for the fall semester (which starts in August 2022),” DeGeare said.
He said the last new degree the college added was an associate of fine arts degree in art, which just reached an important milestone. “It takes five years of provisional approval to gain full approval. We were just granted full approval for the associate of fine arts in art degree this month (December),” DeGeare said. “We’re excited about that.”