Students could pay a third of undergraduate tuition to get a master’s degree if a new program is approved, according to the criminal justice department’s website.

The university’s criminal justice department proposed a new online program for a master’s in criminal justice to university officials last year. The program should have begun last fall, but there had been some delays in the approval process, Johnny Nhan, director of the program, said.

Nhan said the online program would have the same quality as any other TCU graduate degree.

The online program would make life easier for those who worked full-time, like 55 year-old Totsy Sturm. Sturm said she has worked in the human resources department for the past six years and lives more than 30 miles from the university.

With an elderly mother in a nursing home, two children and three grandchildren, Sturm said she had her plate full at home.

Sturm said her ultimate goal was to earn her master’s in criminal justice so she could teach. She said she would like to teach at a junior college close to her home.

The new goal was to have the program approved to begin in the fall of 2013, Nhan said.
“Part of the hold up for this program is that we want to do it right and we want to make sure it’s a high-quality program,” Nhan said. “Online programs in general have been going through a lot of scrutiny in the last few years because there’s a lot of poor quality programs out there.”

The pricing for the program was still being negotiated, Nhan said.

For more information about the program and to receive updates on its status, visit the criminal justice department’s website at www.cjp.tcu.edu.