2024-2025

Montana State University Billings

Welcome from the Office of Graduate Studies

Welcome to Montana State University Billings.  We are proud to provide many opportunities for you to receive a graduate degree in your chosen field.  As a graduate student at Montana State University Billings, you will experience top-notch classes, field experiences, and research opportunities to enhance your skills and expertise.  Our graduate faculty are recognized nationally and internationally for their teaching, research and scholarship.  Our degree programs are regionally accredited and recognized for their excellence.

The Office of Graduate Studies is your initial point of contact for admission to graduate studies.  We will help you with the graduate application and get you started in your chosen program.  Our office facilitates the process of assigning you a faculty advisor and serves as a resource for information along the way to your degree.  If you wish to apply for a Graduate Assistantship or Teaching Assistantship, we can help you with the process.  Please make our office in McMullen Hall your first stop.

The graduate catalog is a comprehensive guide to the outstanding graduate programs we offer at Montana State University Billings.  The catalog is intended to act as your guide for the requirements of the various graduate programs, the policies governing the programs, and the support services available to help you attain your goal.  Your success is our highest priority.

The Office of Graduate Studies
McMullen Hall room 200
Phone: (406) 657-2238
Fax: (406) 657-2302
Email:  gradstudies@msubillings.edu

Mission Statement

The mission of the Graduate Studies Office is to advocate for students and faculty so as to foster and sustain an environment of academic excellence through strong commitment to promote graduate education, research, creative activity, and collaborative endeavors.

• Serves as the administrative center for graduate studies:  handling student files from application through graduation, providing information on financial aid and responding to all inquiries and requests for information.
• Furnishes educational and career counseling and information to new, returning, transfer, and non-degree graduate students.
• Provides service and support to graduate programs for recruiting, marketing, research, and creative endeavors.
• Provides service, support, and information to students, faculty, staff, and other constituents.
• Assists programs and the Graduate Committee in developing and implementing admissions and graduate policies.

Montana State University Billings Graduate Committee

The Graduate Committee, appointed by the Academic Senate, consists of two graduate faculty members from each college offering graduate program(s) and one graduate student, selected by ASMSUB.  Deans from each college with a graduate program and the Director of Graduate Studies serve on the committee as ex-officio members.  The Graduate Committee is responsible for serving as a curriculum review body for graduate programs, for developing policies related to the Graduate Program, for recommending membership on the graduate faculty, for acting on post-baccalaureate student petitions for deviations from policies, and for advising the Director of Graduate Studies on all aspects of graduate studies.

Student Learning Outcomes

MSU Billings understands that student success and student learning takes place inside and outside the classroom.  The ability to assess and measure that success is imperative. The university’s challenges, now and in the future, are to refine student learning outcomes, develop a systemic process that is valid and reliable to collect the appropriate data, and then aggregate/ disaggregate that data.  To assure that the university’s programs continue to meet the needs of both the students and the community, MSU Billings engages in ongoing review and revision of its assessment processes.  This regular review process has resulted in the revision of the university’s academic programs as articulated in this catalog.  Using the in-depth review of general education as a starting point, and working in close cooperation with the Colleges of Business, Education, Health Professions and Science, Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and City College, the University has expanded assessment throughout the institution.  Each program publishes objectives/student learning outcomes in the General Bulletin, the City College Catalog, or the Graduate Catalog, as appropriate.  Program outcomes are reviewed through Annual Reports.  Changes in programs result from review of objectives as they relate to student achievement, program/faculty/student data, and state/national specialty area standards.

Institutional History

Montana State University Billings was established in 1927 as Eastern Montana State Normal School.  At that time all the institutions of higher education were located in western Montana, so the university was designed to serve the needs of eastern Montana, especially with respect to preparing teachers for elementary schools.  In 1966, the institution’s name was changed to Eastern Montana College.  In 1994, with the merger of the Billings Vocational Technical Center, the institution became Montana State University Billings.  The University has grown with the city of Billings to become the major higher educational center in south-central and eastern Montana.

Today the University is the third largest of the six four-year-plus units of the Montana University System.  The University consists of five academic colleges:  the College of Business, the College of Education, the College of Health Professions and Science, the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and City College at Montana State University Billings.

Location and Campus

The Yellowstone Region and the City of Billings:  America’s “last, best place” is undoubtedly an appropriate way to describe the region of the Yellowstone.  Stretching from Yellowstone Park to where it joins the Missouri River, the Yellowstone River is the longest un-dammed river in the United States.  Montana State University Billings shares the history, traditions, and quality of life that characterize the Yellowstone Region.

Montana State University Billings is located in the expanding city of Billings in the valley of the Yellowstone between rugged mountains and sweeping plains, with the population base of approximately 120,000.  The city, the largest in Montana, offers all the conveniences of modern urban life, but has retained its cultural and historical Western tradition of friendliness.

Billings, the “Magic City,” serves as a center for agriculture, finance, trade, medical care, education, tourism and energy-related industries for the people of eastern Montana and northern Wyoming.  It is the largest health care and business hub in a four-state region.  A downtown business district, well-planned shopping centers and malls, and a variety of smaller specialty stores provide ample opportunity for browsing and shopping.

MetraPark, Billings’ major indoor complex, provides a number of entertainment opportunities such as major concert productions, trade shows and sporting events.

Historical sites, fishing streams, mountain trails, and downhill ski runs are within easy driving distance from Billings.  World-famous Yellowstone National Park is nearby.

Billings has a number of churches, radio and television stations, movie theaters, a symphony and a community theater.  Parks, tennis courts and golf courses offer recreational opportunities.  The city is served by excellent transportation facilities.  Among other assets are excellent hotels, motels, restaurants and residential districts.

Accreditation

Montana State University Billings is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU).  In addition, the University is accredited by the following specialized accrediting agencies:  the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), the Montana Board of Public Education, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD), the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), and the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE).

Faculty

MSU Billings faculty have expertise in many academic disciplines and approximately ninety-one percent hold the highest degrees in their fields.  They contribute a number of articles each year to academic and professional journals in their fields and participate with their peers regionally, nationally, and internationally at conferences and seminars.  Each year they receive grants ranging from Fulbrights for study abroad to those for the investigation of human and scientific information.  Because the faculty is involved in research, students may also become involved in research, including the presentation of findings at conferences and the publication of papers in journals.  Also, because the faculty work with their colleagues around the country, they are able to expose MSU Billings students to the latest information in each degree.

Graduate Faculty

Members of the graduate faculty are appointed by their department or program.  The graduate faculty, through a shared governance process, have the responsibility for reviewing and recommending graduate programs and changes thereto, and for assisting and maintaining the standards of the graduate program.

Diversity

MSU Billings supports all members of the University community in their individual growth toward confidence, individual sense of purpose, and acceptance of civic responsibilities.  MSU Billings’ actions are ethical and principled to assure dignity and equity for all.  MSU Billings seeks to increase staff, faculty and student awareness, understanding, and involvement in the international community.  MSU Billings is committed to providing an intellectual and social environment that supports and nurtures diversity awareness and cultural consciousness.