The Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD) will implement various organizational recommendations in response to a variety of factors and headwinds affecting the education sector and enrollment that have arisen in recent years.
GSEHD’s faculty are premier scholars, and the school continues to attract very strong students and numerous programs remain especially competitive and attractive. But volatility in the higher education sector has affected many schools of education, including GSEHD, and has resulted in declining enrollment numbers. As a result, GW and GSEHD leadership have worked to identify options for right-sizing various aspects of the school, in consultation with GSEHD stakeholders and taking into account best practices, to ensure its continued excellence.
GSEHD will work with its faculty to identify and enact strategies to address declining enrollments, which may include combining courses and rearranging its curricula to create larger classes with sufficient enrollment, as well as reorganizing administrative duties and responsibilities. Decisions regarding whether various programs may need to close have not yet been made and discussions will continue as enrollments are evaluated. During this period, the school will notify a number of non-tenured faculty members about potential changes to their job statuses. Many of these notices are being provided now due to requirements in the Faculty Code and may change if issues and/or concerns are resolved in the coming year. GSEHD will also evaluate the number of staff in the context of the forthcoming administrative adjustments, and other modifications may be made in the coming months.