Regis University

MDP Director:

Nina Miller

nmiller004@regis.edu

MDP Website:
http://www.regis.edu/mdp

 

Overview

The Regis University MDP Program meets the urgent need for a new generation of development practitioners. Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 will demand integrated policy and practice with attention to the lived realities of communities around the world. To meet this challenge, we offer extraordinary development education for aspiring and current development practitioners.

The Program

The Regis MDP is an innovative degree that contributes towards the sustainability of our planet and communities everywhere that seek a better future. Our program is integrated, collaborative, accessible, and affordable. Our classes use virtual-visual-conferencing to bring students from around the world together in a continual process of discovery for truly global solutions to development challenges. Our graduates demonstrate holistic development proficiency and skills, garnered from interdisciplinary coursework and field immersions. The Regis MDP is a member of the Global Association of MDP Programs, and meets the Association standard of twenty-nine core Development Practice competencies.

Educational Impact

The Regis Master’s of Development Practice prepares its students to be facilitators of holistic development solutions rather than experts in a single discipline. Regis MDP graduates are committed to social justice and service and have the ability to:

  • Collaborate effectively with a variety of development actors
  • Approach development from an integrated, interdisciplinary and culturally sensitive perspective
  • Engage communities in participatory and empowering ways
  • Understand the project management cycle
  • Think critically and reflectively about development from a global perspective
  • Navigate economic, political, and social complexity as servant-leaders

The Opportunity

Targeted technical and financial resources combine to make the quality education of the Regis MDP an attainable option for qualified people everywhere. State of the art video conferencing enables students to join the program from their place of development work; no one need relocate to Denver for full and inclusive participation in these applied graduate studies. Comprehensive financial assessments for our students facilitate financial accessibility. Every student is considered for financial support keyed to their local economic context.

Learning Communities

Once enrolled, students move through the program both as individuals and as members of Learning Communities which support both cross-disciplinary collaboration and cohesive work around sectoral, geographic, and organizational focus. Learning Communities instantiate a holistic development approach powered by the range of human perspective — generational, gendered, cultural and disciplinary.

Resources

In addition to the dynamic faculty and staff of international academics and practitioners behind the Regis MDP, the following resources of several key partners are available to our students.

  • Posner Center for International Development is the principal partner and physical home of the Regis MDP. The first collaborative space of its kind in North America, Posner Center facilitates lasting development solutions among 60 organizations working in more than 100 countries, many of which provide MDP students with field immersion opportunities and ongoing mentorship
  • The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) provides student scholarships, connectivity solutions via the Global Classroom at the Posner Center, and access to the Smart Village Program, IEEE’s own ongoing development project
  • The Global Classroom at Posner Center is powered by a state of the art, virtual-visual conferencing technology enabling global learning for our students, who live in more than 20 nations around the world
  • Through the U.S. Peace Corps Coverdell Fellows Program, the Regis MDP offers scholarships to Returning Peace Corps Volunteers, as well as qualified community and development leaders with whom they have served
  • The Students Alumni and Advisory Council (SAAC) of GAM supplies a professional platform for job opportunities, networking, and promotion of the MDP brand to employers, and creates forums for discussion, global projects, and idea sharing among students
  • The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, of which Regis University is a member, provides 24/7 online access to reference librarians and library resources to all Regis MDP students. Because of this affiliation, students examine the integrative educational principles of the Jesuits, who have pursued holistic development for nearly 500 years

Program Requirements 

Year One:

DP 600: Models of Development Practice

DP 605: Mapping, Metrics and Money

DP 606: Gender, Intersectionality and Agency

DP 620: Research for Development Practice

 

Year Two:

DP 609: Participatory Planning

DP 604: Climate, Energy and Ecology

DP 608: Economics, Enterprise and Innovation

DP 650: Communications, Advocacy and Marketing

DP 699A: Field Immersion I

 

Year Three:

DP 610: Health and Development

DP 630: Food, Water and Energy

DP 640: Data and Assessment

DP 670: Just and Sustainable Education

DP 699B: Field Immersion II