Newswise — The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics will enroll its first class of master’s degree students in Fall 2015, offering a multidisciplinary Master of Bioethics (MBE) program for full-time and part-time students.

A hallmark of the program will be disciplinary diversity, says Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH, the Berman Institute’s Deputy Director for Policy and Administration. Students will be a mix of working healthcare professionals, current students in professional programs, and recent undergraduates, all with backgrounds in medicine, public health, public policy, humanities, and science.

“The master degree will add an important new graduate program to the array of education and training opportunities at the Berman Institute, ranging from an undergraduate minor in bioethics to the PhD track in Bioethics and Health Policy and the postdoctoral Hecht-Levi Fellowship in Bioethics, along with our summer Intensive Courses,” says Kahn.

The MBE program is offered in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Students will have the option to concentrate in one of five areas: clinical ethics, public health ethics, research ethics, global bioethics, or ethics and emerging biotechnologies. Students will be required to complete a practicum and defend a written thesis.

“We are truly excited to welcome this new group of learners to the Berman Institute community,” says Ruth Faden, PHD, MPH, Director of the Berman Institute. “In training with our remarkable faculty, our MBE students will have extraordinary opportunities to prepare to meet the bioethics challenges of professional and civic life.”

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis; to begin in the Fall term, applications must be received by July 1. More information on the program is available on the Berman Institute’s website: bioethicsinstitute.org/mbe.

# # #

About the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of BioethicsOne of the largest bioethics centers in the world, the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics is the home for collaborative scholarship and teaching on the ethics of clinical practice, public health and biomedical science at Johns Hopkins University. Since 1995, the Institute has worked with governmental agencies, nongovernmental and private sector organizations to address and resolve ethical issues. Institute faculty members represent diverse disciplines including medicine, nursing, law, philosophy, public health and the social sciences. More information is available at www.bioethicsinstitute.org.