Southern New Hampshire University Legal and Ethical Practices: Students will realize the legal and ethical considerations and implications of personal, social, business and international business behavior and activities.
• implementing a learning-centered paradigm.
Research: Students will be able to conduct primary and secondary research and apply the results for informed decision-making.
• employing faculty members who are committed to the mission and the achievement of the program’s competencies and supporting strategies.
Strategic Approaches: Students will be able to think and plan strategically in making business decisions.
• preparing and supporting faculty for the new paradigm.
Leadership: Students will be able to function effectively as a team and organizational leader.
Academic Expectations Students accepted into the 3Year Honors Program have been identified as motivated, focused, and serious academic learners. Typically, their combined SAT score is greater than 1100 (math and critical reading) and their high school grade point average is higher than 3.0. Admission into the program requires students to dedicate themselves to the program and the university with the expectation that they will find multiple means of contributing and building the academic environment and university community; students in the program are encouraged to pursue leadership positions both in and out of the classroom. Once accepted into the program, students are expected to maintain a minimum 3.0 cumulative grade point average. Students who do not perform at this minimum standard will be identified by program administration and will be required to meet with their academic advisor. Students, with support from the academic advisor, will develop a performance plan of action so that they may best meet the academic challenges that they face.
The University’s Implementation Strategies The university ensures the success of all majors within the 3Year Honors Program and the achievement of its mission by pursuing multiple academic and administrative strategies that include: • establishing a managed, competency-based, crosscurricular, interdisciplinary educational environment that is designed to build competencies in the student’s major and in certain selected general education areas in a three-year period that equal or exceed in outcomes those which would occur in a traditional four-year program. • integrating state-of-the-art computer and information technology into the learning process. • using diverse delivery systems for learning. • requiring students to take responsibility for and actively participate in their own educations.
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• conducting an ongoing evaluation of the program and student progress at the end of each year so that competencies and the processes to achieve them are changed when needed and that the program continuously evolves and improves.
• creating flexible, purposeful, integrated interdisciplinary learning modules that are designed to develop certain competencies.
• admitting to the program only those students who manifest the psychological, social and academic maturity and competence to succeed. This includes defining the acceptance criteria that maximizes the possibility of student success and minimizes the chance of failure. • recording student achievements so students who transfer out of the program do so with three-credit modules that have generally recognizable and accepted course names and grades. • educating students to lead lives of continual personal and professional learning. • establishing and maintaining private sector business relationships to provide students with contacts and experiences that complement academic learning and enhance future employment opportunities. • soliciting supplementary funding for student scholarships, faculty support and advanced computer information technology. Although the 3Year Honors Program will be taught in the time frame of the traditional semester, the course content will be delivered through comprehensive and often interdisciplinary modules instead of typical 3-credit classes. It is not a “rescheduling” or compression of our four-year program. Students are required to complete all specially designed modules in the 3Year Honors Program. During the first two years of the program each semester concludes with a week-long integrating experience that brings together competencies learned through the modules offered during that semester. Teams of four to five students spend a week working together, trying to find creative solutions for real-world business challenges. At the end of the integrating experience, each team will present their research and recommendations to professors, just as they would for supervisors, board members and shareholders in the business world. Students receive team-based grades and college credit for their efforts. Integrating experience helps students to see the relevance of their learning and serves as a vehicle for competency development. Students will be required to select a specialization in the spring of their first year and will complete all courses offered within the track as part of their 3Year Honors Program. The fifteen specializations for students in the 3Year Honors Program are outlined as follows: