Maine Connection

Dickinson, University of Maine sign agreement for global policy graduate partnership

November 9, 2010

From left, Dickinson President William G. Durden ’71 signs articulation agreement with Susan J. Hunter, senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of Maine, Robert A. Kennedy, president of the University of Maine, and Neil Weissman, provost and dean at Dickinson. Photo/Kathryn Rice.

Dickinson College and the University of Maine have reached an agreement to formalize academic collaboration in areas of mutual strength and interest, including the creation of a graduate-degree program. The agreement, signed Oct. 22 in Orono, Maine, provides for priority admission of Dickinson students into the University of Maine’s Master of Arts in global policy program in the School of Policy and International Affairs (SPIA). 

Beginning in the fall of 2011, eligible Dickinson graduates can begin academically preparing for a fifth-year master’s of global policy degree at the University of Maine, which they could earn in 15 months of graduate study, according to Jim Settele, assistant director of SPIA.  

Dickinson students who are conditionally accepted into the program would take courses during their senior year that would be applied toward the master’s degree upon matriculation at the University of Maine. 

The affiliation is expected to expand to include possible faculty exchanges between the two institutions, teaching or research collaboration and joint seminars, conferences, classes and cultural programs involving both faculty and students at Dickinson and the University of Maine. Some of the activities could involve distance-learning technologies, according to the agreement signed by Dickinson President William G. Durden ’71 and University of Maine President Robert Kennedy. 

“Our expanded and formalized collaboration with Dickinson College will provide significant opportunity for students who aspire to graduate degrees in this vital field of study,” Kennedy said. “The institutions will further benefit by combining our scholarly efforts and fostering greater understanding of international policy and the attendant issues.” 

The arrangement includes the creation of two graduate fellowships for Dickinson students at the University of Maine. For information about the fellowships, contact (717) 245-1749.

Learn more about Dickinson’s other graduate-school agreements.