Perhaps you’ve discovered that your calling in life is to help your community plan for and deal with emergencies, so you’ve decided you want to enroll in an emergency management degree program. The problem is, you aren’t sure which degree program would be best for helping you to achieve your goals. Which degree program would be most ideal for helping you establish an outstanding career in the field of emergency management? Which characteristics distinguish a high-quality emergency management degree program, anyway? Read on for a discussion of the essential elements that you’ll want to look for before you enroll in an emergency management degree program.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Recommends the Degree Program
FEMA maintains a list of colleges that have emergency management programs. If a college is on the list, it’s there because someone at FEMA thought it was a program worth recommending to aspiring emergency management professionals.
The Degree Program Is Accredited by a Verifiable Accrediting Body
Look for accreditation by a reputable accrediting organization such as the Middle States Commission on Higher Education or the Higher Learning Commission.
The Instructors Have Real-World Emergency Management Experience and Solid Credentials
This criteria is subjective, but it’s still worth considering. Let’s say you’re evaluating two different degree programs. The chair of the emergency management department at ABC College was the emergency management director of Nowheresville, USA; the chair of the department at XYZ University was the principal instructor for New York City’s Homeland Security and Emergency Services Division. Which of the two departments do you think will prepare you better for your future career? While it’s true that either set of instructors will probably give you a worthwhile education, in this case, you’d most likely want to choose XYZ University.
Emergency Management Accreditation Program (EMAP) Accreditation Is Irrelevant
There’s an accrediting body that verifies whether organizations are upholding best-practice standards and protocols for emergency management. There are 64 different criteria that EMAP evaluates before granting accreditation.
EMAP is not an organization for accrediting college degree programs; they grant accreditations to a wide variety of organizations, including the Center for Disease control (CDC), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington District and bunches of other organizations, agencies and jurisdictions in the USA and internationally.
There are schools that hold this accreditation, but it is not an accreditation of their emergency management degree programs; rather, it is an accreditation for the school’s actual emergency management plan. This accreditation means that the school has an excellent plan in place to handle emergencies; if a crisis occurs while you’re at school, you have a better-than-average chance of staying safe during the emergency. The accreditation is not a measure of the excellence of the school’s emergency management degree programs. So, when you are evaluating emergency management degree programs, do not hold it against a school if they don’t have this particular credential on their list of accreditations and memberships.
Related resource: 20 Top Emergency Management Degree Programs Under $23,000 Average Net
So there you have it: That’s a list of our top recommendations for what to look for in an emergency management degree program. If you’re able to find a program that satisfies all these criteria, it’s a good bet that the program will prepare you well for helping your community establish and follow an emergency response plan. Successful completion of such an emergency management degree program would be the first step in launching a new career as an emergency management professional.