The University of Tennessee’s (UT) Knoxville campus will begin offering a new agriculture-based Ph.D. program in Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications beginning in the Fall 2025 semester, the university announced this week.
The program will be offered by UT’s Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications (ALEC) in the Herbert College of Agriculture and will be available to be completed online or on-campus.
Big news! @UTKnoxville is launching Tennessee’s first Ph.D. program in Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communications in @UT_Herbert. Applications open Spring 2025 with both online and on-campus options available. Learn more: https://t.co/l3Hvf7BiV5
— UT Institute of Agriculture (@UTIAg) November 15, 2024
Student applications for the Ph.D. program, which was approved by the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees in October, will open in Spring 2025.
The program will include courses that focus on addressing “complex issues related to food, agriculture, natural resources and human sciences” with an emphasis on “agricultural leadership, education, and communications,” UT said.
UT Knoxville Chancellor Donde Plowman said the university’s offering of the new graduate program will “attract the best and brightest students looking to make a difference in our society.”
“We are committed to meeting the needs of our state and country. Strong academic programs that advance agricultural leadership and research in the state of Tennessee is another way we contribute to our land-grant mission,” Plowman added.
With the addition of the new program, UT’s ALEC Department will be the only department in the Herbert College of Agriculture to offer all three degree options – bachelor’s, master’s, and Ph.D. – online.
“Students have told us that the online option, in addition to an on-campus program, is a highly desirable way to attain a degree,” UT Knoxville’s ALEC Department Head Christopher Stripling said.
Stripling added that giving students the opportunity to complete the new program online was created “in response to the needs of today’s learners,” adding that the opportunity will allow for “adults to reengage in higher education and complete an advanced degree.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “UT Knoxville Ag Program” by University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
GREAT NEWS
PLEASE NO WOKE CRAP
THE US MUST BE ABLE TO FEED ITS PEOPLE.
TIME TO GET RID OF THE DEI & OTHER UNECESSARY BS AT UT.
NO MORE FARM LAND SOLD TO BILL GATES OR CHINA.
I’d rather see Tennessee as an agrigiculture state than EV manufacturer.
Nothing like a touchy-feely PhD for farmers. Sounds like more liberal gibberish to me.