Special Studies Program

Director's Message

Welcome to the Special Studies Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE).

HGSE is a community of committed educators who are invested in making an impact on the lives of learners at all stages of the life-cycle. We offer a suite of twelve targeted programs that focus on educating teachers, reading specialists, principals, administrators and policy makers.

We created the Special Studies program for those students who have interests that fall outside the bounds of our targeted programs. HGSE and the Harvard community have enormous educational riches to offer and this program is for those students who cannot meet their educational objectives thorough one of the other programs. Past specialized students have included medical students and a surgeon who were interested in understanding the education of medical students, a 20 year veteran science teacher who pursued a course of study here and in the FAS department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and another student interested in understanding how cultural institutions can further economic development in developing countries.

The specialized program is your own to design. Study the catalogue and let us know what you hope to study, who you will work with, and why this program (as opposed to our targeted programs) is right for you. We look forward to hearing from you.

John Collins
Member of the Faculty of Education