An Act to authorize state universities to offer clinical and professional doctorate programs

This bill authorizes Massachusetts state universities to offer clinical and professional doctorate degrees, expanding their current academic offerings beyond traditional research-focused PhD programs. The legislation amends state law to explicitly allow these institutions to grant degrees such as Doctor of Education or Doctor of Physical Therapy, provided they receive approval from the Board of Higher Education. While state universities can now pursue these professional degrees independently, the bill maintains a restriction that they cannot offer PhD programs unless they do so in cooperation with the University of Massachusetts. The primary goal of the change is to increase the capacity of the state university system to train professional educators and other specialized practitioners.