Harrison Middleton University believes that students should be able to study the subjects that interest them. In applying this philosophy to all degree programs, the university has found that students tend to stay interested and achieve success in their educational pursuits because they are invested in the outcome of their personally designed program of study.
Students are encouraged to be creative in the design of their program, drawing primary source materials from a variety of approved sources including Britannica’s Great Books of the Western World, Oxford University Press, Penguin Modern and Nonfiction Classics, and W.W. Norton and Company.
A core program consists of twenty-eight (28) credit hours in the Master of Arts program, and forty-eight (48) credit hours in the Doctor of Arts and Doctor of Education programs. With the guidance of a Mentor and Instructional Team, students design coursework in the concentrations of imaginative literature, natural science, philosophy and religion, and/or social science.
Designing a program of study is the culminating assignment in The Great Conversation: The Cornerstone Course, a required course for all students entering a degree program. Students at Harrison Middleton University are enrolled in and complete one course at a time. Each course needs to be completed within sixteen weeks. All courses consist of a series of Zoom discussions and an end-of-course essay.
The university understands that learning follows from life experiences as well as academic study, and students are encouraged to be creative in the design of their Capstone, which is the culminating experience at the university. The Capstone allows a student to demonstrate her or his knowledge of the authors, ideas, topics, and subtopics studied in the degree program. Students can design a unique project which may include writing a novel or a series of short stories, creating a form of artwork or a sequence of pedagogical training, or writing a substantial essay based on fieldwork.
Institutional Outcomes
Institutional Outcomes include the knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes that students develop as a result of their overall educational experience at Harrison Middleton University, including courses, programs, and student services.
Critical Thinking Skills
Upon successful completion at Harrison Middleton University, students will demonstrate sophisticated critical thinking skills, the ability to analyze problems and apply new knowledge; collect, synthesize, and evaluate ideas, information, and data to develop research parameters and derive conclusions; use logic and evidence to support claims, arguments, and original ideas.
Civic Engagement & Social Responsibility
Students will promote civic engagement and social responsibility, the ability to examine community challenges and broader social concerns in the context of the humanities and within a continuum of fundamental questions regarding the nature of human existence; demonstrate the value of interpretive analysis and inquiry-based discussion as cornerstones of civil discourse and social harmony.
Ethical Reasoning
Students will apply the precepts of ethical reasoning, the ability to identify and evaluate the ethical issues and problems particular to a field of study; formulate criteria for assessing the validity and efficacy of the ideas, research, and applications pursued in their chosen fields.
Global Citizenship
Students will demonstrate global citizenship, the ability to apply interdisciplinary knowledge of Western cultural history to fields of study beyond the Western tradition; extend their knowledge and experience of cultural history in the service of collaborative research and publications.
Lifelong Learning
Students will engage in lifelong learning, the ability to sustain the habits of close reading, questioning, and inquiry-based exploration; utilize self-directed programs of study and Capstone projects as foundations for the lifelong pursuit of intellectual inquiry, original thought, and interdisciplinary knowledge.