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The meeting also saw a vote to establish the Master of Arts program, which would entail a collaboration between the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Columbia and the Aga Khan University Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations in London.
The Committee on Education, a subcommittee within the senate tasked with guiding educational innovations from faculty, proposed a five-semester-long program that will allow interested students to study at Columbia for the first two semesters, and then study for a second two at Aga Khan. The proposal comes in light of interest expressed by applicants in Columbia’s existing Master of Arts in Islamic studies program to have a dual program in the field of Islamic studies. Students who participate in the program will spend their fifth semester writing a completion thesis and can reside in either New York or London.
“Both of the master degrees programs are up and running, and its envisioned that this is a relatively small program, roughly five students for years, it is not a tax on the current resources,” co-chair of the Committee on Education James Applegate said.
