Healthcare Administration and Leadership

The overall goals of the program are to prepare students to:

• Apply a range of individual and team leadership theories and skills that can be utilized to benefit others and their organizations.
• Develop interventions and apply tools to increase health equity and reduce causal factors.
• Apply basic financial, accounting, marketing, business strategies, data analysis, operations management, and productivity in managing the business of health care.
• Understand systems of change and apply frameworks for leading systems of change using analytic strategies and tools to assess effective and ineffective approaches in health care.

Accelerated Master of Science in Healthcare Administration and Leadership 4+1 Option

The Master of Science in Healthcare Administration and Leadership Accelerated Program, or 4+1 program, is designed for undergraduate students in any major who have the interest, and demonstrated ability, to pursue the MS in Healthcare Administration and Leadership. 

The program is designed to allow students who complete their undergraduate degree to fulfill the requirements of the MS in Healthcare Administration and Leadership with one additional year of graduate study.  This will be achieved by combining a portion of undergraduate and graduate coursework as described below.

Eligibility and Admission

Applying to the 4+1/Accelerated option is a two-stage process coordinated with both your undergraduate and graduate advising teams. For detailed instructions and application links, please visit the central 4+1 programs webpage.

Double Counting Credits

• The 4+1 Masters program allows current UM-Dearborn undergraduate students to complete both their BA/BS and MS in Healthcare Administration and Leadership degrees in an accelerated format. 4+1 students can double-count up to 16 credits of 500-level or above courses. Double-counting these 16 credits between the BA/BS and MS in Healthcare Administration and Leadership saves students a total of 6 classes.  In addition, in accordance with the campus Course Level Assessment Policy, undergraduate students are charged undergraduate tuition rates for graduate level courses. As a result, the cost of completing the Master's degree is reduced. The courses eligible to be double-counted include:
  • HHS 501 HHS Internship
  • HHS 503 Medical Information Systems
  • HHS 504 Financing Health & Medical Systems
  • HHS 507 Fundraising & Grantwriting
  • HHS 515 Healthcare Administration
  • HHS 548 Comparative Health Care Systems
  • HHS 556 Healthcare and the Law
  • HIT 500 Economics of Healthcare
  • HIT 510 Management of Healthcare Data
• Students enrolled in undergraduate programs that require the 400-level equivalent of the courses listed above can count the 500-level version of those courses towards the completion of their undergraduate requirements. If the 400-level version of the classes listed above are not part of the student's undergraduate requirements then these courses can count as electives towards the undergraduate degree.  Students who do not have room for any more elective credit in their plan of study can still complete this program, but may end up with more than the minimum number of undergraduate credits required for their program. The following courses may be substituted: HHS 501 for HHS 402, HHS 503 for HHS 403, HHS 504 for HHS 404, HHS 507 for HHS 407, HHS 515 for HHS 415, HHS 548 for HHS 448, HHS 556 for HHS 456.
• At least one additional year of graduate work (at least 20 credits) would be needed to complete the Master's program.
• The double-counted classes appear on both the undergraduate and graduate transcripts.  Students are graded based on the graduate grading scheme for all graduate courses elected. Only graduate level courses can be double counted towards both the undergraduate and graduate degree.  Students are not allowed to count undergraduate coursework towards a graduate degree.
• Students must attain a grade of B or better in each 500 level class double-counted or transferred to the graduate program.  Failure to do so may result in removal from the 4+1 program.  Students may be given the opportunity to retake courses once they complete their undergraduate degree.

Feasibility of this Program

To complete the 4+1 program in five years students will have to complete any remaining courses in the MS in Healthcare Administration and Leadership plan of study.  The following table shows a sample course schedule for the final year of the accelerated program.  In this schedule it is assumed that students take 16 credits of graduate coursework as undergraduates, which leaves them with 20 credits to complete as graduate students.   Students taking less than the full 16 credits as undergraduates may require more than one year to complete the Master’s program.  The courses shown in the table are only the graduate level courses that would be required to complete the MS in Healthcare Administration and Leadership.  It is assumed students would fill in other requirements for their undergraduate degree as needed.

Sample Plan of Study (4+1 MS Healthcare Admin & Leadership) 

Fall Semester - Undergrad Final Year/Grad First Year
HHS 515 Healthcare Administration  3 credits
HHS 503 Medical Information Systems 3 credits
HHS 507 Grantwriting & Fundraising 3 credits

Winter Semester - Undergrad Final Year/Grad First Year
HHS 548 Comparative Health Care Systems 3 credits
HHS 556 Healthcare and the Law  3 credits

Program Notes

The undergraduate degree for 4+1 students can be conferred upon completion of the undergraduate degree requirements, rather than after completion of the graduate degree.