Eager Students Now Able to Continue their Education

Pepperdine University has finally agreed that four years of college just might not be enough to get the fullest education, and in the upcoming months, the university will be releasing the Doctoral program at the Graduate School of Education and Psychology for students who are looking to continue their education.

Pepperdine University has only ever offered a continuing education through their Master’s programs, but for the past five years, the university has been waiting to unveil a massive project that they’ve been working on being the establishment of a doctoral program. The graduate school currently offers three doctorates of education with focuses in learning technologies, organizational leadership, and a doctorate with a focus in educational leadership, administration, and policy. However, the program that is set to come in the upcoming year of 2016 has a different way of approaching the students who are accepted into the program.

Dr. Farzin Madjidi, professor of leadership at the Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology (GSEP), has taken the initiative, along with an impressive staff, to spearhead and create a unique learning environment for the students of the doctoral program.

Madjidi, along with the rest of the staff at Pepperdine, have said that the gap in the market of young professionals wanting to serve the community fully, not only encouraged the team to look into the pursuit of a PhD program, but also allowed the team to believe that they could provide this opportunity for the students. In teaching the students how to give back to the community, Madjidi said the students would be “more wholesome teachers.”

“A trend is developing where the people are able to meet the education doctorate programs and are looking for more areas of experiencing and developing their scholarship,” said Madjidi in response to why the team at Pepperdine decided it was necessary to establish a program that allows for the continuation of education. “The students needed more skills and more specialization and wanted to be offered more,” continued Madjidi and why the creation of the program was needed.

The program is also aiming to be unique in the sense that the courses are being offered are more than just classes; they are going to challenge the student to become more rounded and more versed in the field of study.

“We created a course that’s taken during the first year of their studies that helps students go through a development of a skill for presenting at a conferences and giving them something for review and consideration before publication,” said Madjidi. “Things like that are a system that would sustain our students to be able to achieve what they want to do,” continued Madjidi on the unique opportunities that will be offered to the students in addition to the course work, available resources, and additional areas of help that will benefit the students in relation to developing their areas of research. With all that will be provided, Dr. Madjidi says this will ensure the success of the students.

As far as the application process, although it hasn’t officially opened up yet for students to apply, Dr. Madjidi said the program anticipates that it will have about 40 applicants. The program will naturally not accept all of the applicants, but is planned to fill roughly 18 positions. As a result of having such a limited pool of students, there will be more opportunities for teacher-student relationships that help the student develop the necessary skills for success.

Madjidi said that the result of the doctoral program will only be positive for the growth of Pepperdine.

“In fact, this is the first step for Pepperdine to offer more of these programs,” Madjidi said, “and in the long run, the college will only aid in really improving the amount of research so that in the years to come, we will be able to expand these opportunities for students who are interested in continuing their education at Pepperdine.”

Alongside the preparation and optimism that Dr. Madjidi and the rest of the staff have toward the program, success is expected and the board appears to be willing to do whatever it takes in order to have this success.