The MCR program prepares graduates to excel as clinical research professionals in roles such as: clinical research coordinators, project managers, research administrators, regulatory compliance specialists, and other professional roles on clinical research teams in the clinical research enterprise.
The program offers a multidisciplinary curriculum, covering the science and practice of research methods, medical product regulation, research ethics, pharmacology, statistics, and research operations and management in keeping with the standards set forth by the Commission on Accreditation of Academic Programs in Clinical Research (CAAPCR), based on the Joint Task Force for Clinical Trial Competency framework. As new clinical research topics emerge in the enterprise, courses are updated to include learning opportunities in those topics.
Students are provided opportunities to gain knowledge, skills and abilities through didactic content, evaluations, and assignments that are applied and real-world oriented. All students complete a culminating project and finalize their ePortfolio in their last semester where they have an opportunity to apply best practices in clinical research roles or address a key clinical research topic.
The MCR Program is a 36 credit hour program. Some combined specializations or dual degree options have more credit hours.
For a 3-credit course, the student is expected to spend an average of 9 hours per week over a 15-week semester working on course activities, including reviewing module carmen pages, lectures, required readings, assignment development and submission, discussion activities, quizzes, and ePortfolio development. During summer term, students should average 11 hours per week due to the shorter length of the summer term (12.5 weeks).