by Cayman Somerville, Environmental Science, 2016
Last month, a pipeline agreement was finalized between Northeastern University’s biotechnology program and Loyola University Maryland to streamline the admissions process for prospective Master’s students.
Dr. Jared Auclair, who was appointed director of Northeastern University’s Biotechnology Professional Science Masters and Training program last July, aims to seek out innovative ways at Northeastern to increase the amount of students in the program. “One way to do that is through pipeline agreements,” stated Dr. Auclair.
Furthermore, Auclair pointed out that although similar agreements have existed in the past, they had “never really been followed up.”
Through a Northeastern colleague, Dr. Auclair connected with Dr. David Rivers, a Loyola University professor who manages a network of educators focused on advancing students’ careers in biotechnology. Attracted to the cost benefit of the approach, Auclair and Rivers decided to collaborate to form a pipeline for Loyola students.
This agreement was pursued because Loyola University lacks a Biotechnology Masters degree program. In the case of Loyola, Dr. Auclair reviewed their undergraduate program and determined that their standards were quite high. Students must achieve a 3.2 grade point average or higher to be automatically admitted to Northeastern’s Biotechnology Masters program. The agreement reduces the amount of information qualified students must provide and waives application fees.
“I want to make sure quality is still good, even though I am trying to increase the quantity,” noted Dr. Auclair.
He intends to target undergraduate or community colleges with strong pipelines to attract students who want to enroll in the two-year Masters program. “The idea now is to go beyond Loyola and take this approach with other universities that don’t have Masters programs in Biotech,” Dr. Auclair said.
This spring, Dr. Auclair hopes to run a seminar about the program at Loyola University, aiming to recruit students and to encourage faculty to promote the agreement. Dr. Rivers will also advertise the program on the Loyola website.
“Hopefully this is one of many [universities] that we’re going to streamline the process for,” said Dr. Auclair. “I am also looking for innovative ways for other faculty to get involved, either at Northeastern or Loyola or other universities that might have interest.”
The pipeline agreement details are expected to be up shortly on the College of Science’s Biotechnology page.
To learn more about the Biotech program, visit its website or email Dr. Jared Auclair at [email protected].
