Founded in 2012, the Global Higher Education (GHE) Program is a master’s degree program specialized in training future generations of global-minded professionals and scholars in international education, higher education administration, and student affairs. The GHE program is a leading program committed to fostering student success, happiness, and well-being.

Click here to read what our alumni said about the GHE program.

The Program

Unique Strengths of the Program

Program at a Glance

  • Degree: Master of Science in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis
  • Length of study: 12 months (intensive track) or 1.5 year (regular track), up to 2 years (comprehensive track). Students will choose the track after two months of study at the GHE program.
  • Delivery: Face-to-Face
  • Course requirement: Minimum 30 credits at the graduate level
  • Program starts in Fall semester each year.
  • Tuition: $6144.50 per semester for resident (in-state) students; $12,807.94 per semester for non-resident and international students (based on 8 or more credits of graduate level in Fall semester 2023). For most ​recent ​tuition rate, please check out University Tuition and Fees.
  • Our graduates job placement rate is 93% or higher since 2013.
  • The success rate of our graduates receiving Ph.D. program admission offers is around 93% since 2015.
  • Tuition and Funding Policies:
    • The GHE program does not provide financial support to master’s students.
    • GHE students may accept a graduate assistantship with tuition remission they find on their own. However, Hiring departments are not obligated to provide tuition assistance.
    • An academic unit that wishes to provide tuition assistance may complete the Internal Third-Party Deferral Process for financial incentives which credits a student’s tuition account with funds paid by a UW–Madison academic unit.

    For more details, please see UW-Madison Policy (UW-1029) regarding Graduate Assistantships and Service-Based Pricing

The Department

The mission of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA) is to create, evaluate, exchange, and apply knowledge about leadership, learning, and organizational performance to prepare scholars and scholar practitioners who cultivate equity and educational opportunity in a diverse and changing world.

The School of Education

The UW-Madison School of Education is consistently ranked one of the top schools of education in the nation. In the 2019 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Education Graduate Schools ratings, the School ranked No. 2 overall (tied with Harvard University).

Complementing UW-Madison’s status as one of the most ​globally connected universities in the world, the School of Education plays an important role in preparing students to be global citizens and in helping to shape UW’s broader global agenda.