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FISHERIES PH.D. ON THE HOOK

By Wes Clement/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Tuesday, August 11, 2009 11:09 PM CDT

The next step in the pursuit of an aquaculture/fisheries Ph.D. program at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff is approaching.

The University of Arkansas Board of Trustees is scheduled to decide Sept. 4 the question of approving a program proposed by UAPB that has been 10 years in the making.

The vote is on the agenda of the board’s monthly meeting to be held at the Donaghey Student Center rooms A, B and C at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock campus, according to Ben Beaumont, a UA system spokesman.

UAPB would then need the approval of the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Bobby McGhee, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences dean, told the UA board at a June 26 meeting at UAPB he was convinced it would be “an incredibly competitive program” able to select from the brightest students in the nation and beyond.

McGhee, who has launched six doctoral programs and reviewed more than 100, was one of a number of people charged with thoroughly reviewing the fisheries program.

“If they gave Nobel Prizes for aquaculture, there would be four or five on this campus. The faculty is stellar when stacked against any school in the nation,” he said.

Dr. Carole Engle, chairman of the aquaculture and fisheries department at UAPB, said she regularly receives calls from students wanting to enroll in the program though it does not yet truly exist and has not been advertised.

The caliber of Ph.D.s employed by the department known to the students is a heavy attraction to the school.

There have been no formal information sessions since the June board of trustees meeting at UAPB, Beaumont said.

Engle said that if the program is approved, UAPB would be the second university in the United States with a doctorate program specifically for aquaculture and fisheries. Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., offers the Ph.D. program.

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