Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies

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Penn State Great Valley


Established	1963
Type	Public graduate and continuing professional education
Chancellor	Diane M. Disney, Ph.D.
Faculty	43 full-time, 66 part-time
Postgraduates	1,350 graduate students; 1,600 continuing professional education students
Location	Malvern, PA, USA
Campus	Suburban
Colors	Navy Blue and White
Mascot	Nittany Lion
Affiliations	Penn State University
Website	http://www.gv.psu.edu/

Penn State Great Valley is a special mission campus of The Pennsylvania State University, located in Malvern, 20 miles northwest of Philadelphia in the United States. Master's degrees are offered in education, finance, information science, leadership development, software engineering, systems engineering, and training design and development. MBA programs, master's certificates, and continuing professional education programs are also available. Classes are geared toward working adults, and meet evenings and Saturdays in 7- and 14-week sessions, year around.

1 History
2 Academics
3 References
4 External link

[edit] History

Penn State Great Valley was founded in 1963 to provide graduate engineering science programs to employees of local businesses. When it opened, it was housed in a rented school building in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania and known as the King of Prussia Graduate Center. Education programs were added in the late 1960s and, in 1974, the campus began offering courses off-site at area local businesses. In 1978, poor building conditions led to a move to an old elementary school building in Radnor, Pennsylvania. This location lasted only 4 years as the campus moved back to King of Prussia in 1982 and changed its name to the King of Prussia Center for Graduate Studies and Continuing Education.

In 1987, the university acquired its current location, an 8.5 acre site within the Great Valley Corporate Center in Malvern, Pennsylvania. A brand new facility was built on the site earning the distinction of being the first permanent campus in the country to be located within a corporate park. After completion, the campus moved into the new location in 1988 with yet another new name, Penn State Great Valley. This move also coincided with the introduction of a graduate management program. In 1998, the Board of Trustees approved the Great Valley campus to be a distinct School of Graduate Professional Studies. Due to its expanding programs, a second building, the Safeguard Scientifics Building, was built next to the original facility and opened in 2001 with a 300-seat auditorium and additional classrooms.

[edit] Academics

The Penn State Great Valley School of Graduate Professional Studies houses three academic divisions:

Education: NCATE-accredited master's degrees including the M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction with emphases in science education, literacy, instructional leadership, and children's literature; M.Ed. in Instructional Systems with emphases in training design and development for corporate trainers, and leadership in technology integration for teachers and administrators; M.Ed. and M.S. in Special Education with preparation in instructional I certification and supervisor of special education certification; principal certification; and graduate certificate programs in collaborative mentorship and coaching, differentiated instruction in general education classrooms, leadership in elementary science teaching, literacy strategies across content and cultures, and workplace learning and performance improvement design. Courses are held on the Great Valley campus, and at The Lancaster Center, Penn State Lehigh Valley, and North Penn High School.
Engineering and Information Science: Master of Science in Information Science, Master of Engineering in Systems Engineering, and Master of Software Engineering. Students may also minor in bioinformatics. Engineering graduate certificates are offered in bioinformatics, enterprise integration, industrial statistics, informatics, information security, problem solving, and research methods. Classes are held on the Great Valley Campus and at the Philadelphia Navy Yard.
Management: AACSB-accredited MBA Programs with emphases in biotechnology and health industry management, new ventures and entrepreneurial studies, and business administration; Master of Finance; Master of Leadership Development; graduate certificates in business leadership and the essentials of entrepreneurship; and post-master's certificate programs in finance, biotechnology and health management, human resources management, management of information systems, marketing, and new ventures and entrepreneurial studies.
Continuing Professional Education: Courses and certificate programs are offered in business and technology. Examples of CE offerings include training in database design, data networking and security, Java programming, advanced project management, business processes and Six Sigma certification, and paralegal certification, among many others.