The Higher Education Administration Doctoral Program is distinguished by six defining characteristics:

1. It is committed to fostering organizational change, and to preparing administrators and educational leaders to make significant improvements in colleges and universities.
2. It is designed on the cohort model, in which students who enter at the same time take courses and do field work together -- a model that fosters collaborative approaches to learning, decision-making, and problem-solving.
3. It is focused on the opportunities, challenges, and concerns that characterize urban higher education, including access and equity.
4. It is designed to serve experienced, working practitioners who are committed to expanding and strengthening their capacities for leadership.
5. It is intended to serve as a means by which increased numbers of women and members of minority groups may become educational leaders.
6. It offers a highly interdisciplinary curriculum, entailing work in history and the social, organizational, and managerial sciences.