Nonprofit Academic Centers Council releases updated graduate and undergraduate study curricular guidelines
The Nonprofit Academic Centers Council (NACC) released updated Graduate & Undergraduate Study Curricular Guidelines on July 16, 2015 at its bi-annual conference in Chicago, Ill. This release is the Third Edition of the Graduate Curricular Guidelines and the Second Edition of the Undergraduate Guidelines designed for those who support, teach and advance the fields of nonprofit leadership, the nonprofit sector and philanthropy through colleges and universities.
“For those who study, teach, perform research and work in the nonprofit sector, NACC’s guidelines provide a framework for how nonprofit and philanthropy programs are organized as embedded in various disciplines but also as an independent field of study,” said Stuart C. Mendel, NACC President from Cleveland State University. “A decade has passed since release of the first curricular framework for our field and these latest guidelines reveal that a “nonprofit-first” perspective of a discipline is upon us,” he added.
The Graduate Curricular Guidelines reflect 16 topical areas and the Undergraduate Curricular Guidelines reflect 13 defined content areas, each reflecting what an educated student should know about the nonprofit sector across any major of study. They also reveal what should be known by students pursuing nonprofit and philanthropic sector leadership and management careers.
“Among the salient changes in both the graduate and undergraduate guidelines are topical categories involving the expansion of technology in the field and in course delivery, more pronounced global and international perspectives, and an accentuation of social innovation and social enterprise as content areas, among several changes from prior guidelines,” said Dr. Robert F. Ashcraft, of Arizona State University and Chair of the NACC Curricular Guidelines Revision Project. “These are guidelines informed by academics and practitioners from the United States and around the world and, as such, will add enormous value to both theoretical understanding and ‘real world’ application of concepts to a most important sector that operates as part of the fabric of most communities,” he added.
The publication is available for download at http://nonprofit-academic-centers-council.org.