A university in Jacksonville, Tennessee, announced in December 2010 that the school was going to be offering a doctorate degree in Emergency Management, and is the first doctoral degree offered by the institution. Students who participated in the program in its inaugural year recently completed their first year, and many students agree the program has been a huge success.

According to Science Careers, students earning an online doctorate degree in business may begin to get training in 21st century skills needed in the workplace. At the university in Tennessee, students learn advanced skills needed to compete in a global market that is increasingly centered around technology.

The Emergency Management doctorate offered at the Tennessee institution focuses on comprehensive and interdisciplinary analysis and applied research in three main areas of emergency management. Administration and policy, research methods and statistics and areas of specialization in disaster recovery are all covered by students earning the degree.

Students also learn through seminars, annual on-campus workshops and online interactions that encourage development of professional skills to easily deal with the normal challenges of working in the field.

“The seminars give the students an opportunity to interact with each other in person, which fosters stronger bonds between the cohort members,” doctoral student Leonard Peterson told The Jacksonville News. “In many ways, my cohort feels like my ‘other’ family! I suspect that I have developed friendships that will last for the rest of my life.”

Some experts believe that schools should cut down the amount of time it takes to earn such a degree, as a similar education in the United Kingdom takes about half the time as it would in America. If universities were to follow the British model, programs would have no course requirements, but instead allow students to take courses in accordance to their goals in the profession.