Executive Summary

The Joint Development of a Master’s Degree in Education for Health Professions Faculty in the United States and India

Training new generations of health professionals is a critical need for all countries, including the US and India. The faculty members responsible for such training are selected for their disciplinary knowledge and clinical skills but rarely for their educational knowledge or skills. Improving the educational skills levels of health professions faculty is one important way to foster better health care for the public. In the proposed project, the University of Michigan and Maharashtra University of the Health Sciences will jointly develop a Master’s degree program in Education that is specifically designed for faculty in the health professions. Through exchange planning visits, ongoing collaboration and teamwork, and rigorous assessment and program evaluation, we will develop a degree program that is competency-based, adherent to international standards, accessible to a diverse audience of faculty members, yet able to meet local institutional and national contexts with flexibility.

This project will establish a self-sustaining Master’s degree program implemented at both the University of Michigan and Maharashtra University of the Health Sciences. The long-term impact will be to increase the quality of the teaching faculty at both institutions, promote greater collaboration between the schools, augment scholarship related to best-practices in health professions education, and better prepare faculty members for leadership positions across the globe. Increasing the prestige and ‘professionalism’ of teaching in the health professions will attract better faculty members and retain them in their important educational roles.