UToledo College of Law, Adrian College Launch Joint Degree Program

UToledo College of Law, Adrian College Launch Joint Degree Program

The University of Toledo College of Law and Adrian College announced a joint degree agreement on Wednesday, creating a pathway for students to simultaneously earn a juris doctor from UToledo and a master of arts in criminal justice from Adrian College.

UToledo Interim President Matt Schroeder and Adrian College President Jeffrey R. Docking participated in a signing ceremony at 3 p.m. at the UToledo College of Law.

"The University of Toledo College of Law is excited to partner with Adrian College, with whom we established our first accelerated degree program with an external college or university in 2016," said Rebecca Zietlow, interim dean of the UToledo College of Law. "Thank you to Geoffrey Rapp, senior associate dean for academic affairs and Harold A. Anderson Professor of Law & Values at the UToledo College of Law, and Nathan Goetting, professor and director of the Romney Institute for Law and Public Policy at Adrian College, for spearheading efforts to create this valuable opportunity for our students to advance their professional goals in the field of criminal justice."

"The master of arts in criminal justice-juris doctor partnership between Adrian College and The University of Toledo College of Law will create exciting opportunities for students at both institutions," said Goetting, who also is a Faculty Fellow of Civil Liberties at UToledo's Institute of American Constitutional Thought & Leadership. "Many of Adrian College's best criminal justice graduate students are interested in law and many UToledo law students hope to become criminal attorneys. This program will enable the former to achieve their academic and professional goals sooner and the latter to earn an extra credential by taking advanced criminal justice courses and conducting high-level research on the topic of their choice."

Students who partake in the joint degree program can earn both degrees with the same number of credit hours needed to earn a law degree at UToledo. The program will begin enrolling students as early as this fall.

The UToledo College of Law offers several joint degree or certificate programs with colleges within UToledo, drawing on the University's strength as one of just a handful of institutions in the country to offer degree programs in the seven professional fields of law, business, education, engineering, medicine, nursing and pharmacy.

This is its first combined juris doctor-graduate degree program with another university.

It strengthens an existing relationship between the UToledo College of Law and Adrian College, which signed an accelerated degree program agreement in March 2016. The 3+3 Program allows undergraduate students at partner institutions to earn both a bachelor's degree and a law degree in just six years instead of the usual seven.

One of the first law schools in Ohio to launch a 3+3 Program, UToledo has since partnered with several undergraduate institutions across Ohio, Michigan and Indiana including Indiana Tech University, Lourdes University, Marietta College, Siena Heights University, Trine University and the University of Findlay.