Great news! The National Center for Education Statistics, NCES, has accepted “Medical Humanities” as a new CIP code.
Background and Results: Earlier this year, a small group responded to a survey and proposed “Health Humanities and Medical Humanities,” to be a new code in the IPEDS database. We also proposed that the code be housed in the “30” range, which is “Multi/Interdisciplinary Programs,” and they are currently suggesting housing it under “51. Health Professions and Related Programs.”
Moving Forward: We have a chance to suggest changes by Sept. 19. As the coordinator, I will compose a request-for-change comment that includes adding “Health” in the program title, such as “Medical or Health Humanities” or “Medical/Health Humanities.” Regarding IPEDS’s proposed housing under Health Professions rather than Multi-Interdisciplinary Programs, the latter is more inclusive of the range of undergrad and grad programs in the U.S., and I will suggest that it be entered under Multi/Interdisciplinary rather than “Health Professions.” If you have comments or suggestions for the request-for-change letter, especially if you are in a program that is not exclusively or entirely medicine-focused or if you submit IPEDS data and can share important implications about whether the code is Multi/Interdisciplinary versus Health Professions, contact Sarah at
sarah.berry@oswego.edu
Who can contribute input? Anyone. IPEDS data are collected for degree- and certificate-bearing programs that receive federal funding (this includes programs in virtually any school except for-profit schools)—and the degrees may be baccalaureate, graduate, professional, or technical degrees, including certificates.
Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey earlier this year, requesting that Medical Humanities and Health Humanities be added as a code—your voices were heard! Thank you to everyone on this list for your continued participation as we move forward inclusively and accurately. Please forward to interested parties not on this list.
To anyone who works in/with a degree-or certificate-bearing program, you or your program leader will be able to submit your program data for 2020-2021 to IPEDS under “Medical Humanities” (at least, and maybe more inclusively Medical/Health Humanities, if they take our suggestion). The new code and tools that go with it for data management will be on the IPEDS website next July (2019). I’ll send another update then.
Thanks,
Sarah
Sarah Berry, PhD
English and Creative Writing
Health Promotion and Wellness
SUNY Oswego
