BCCC Adding Three New Majors To Fall Offerings

Bucks County Community College is adding three new majors to its educational programming starting this fall.

BCCC will offer the following new programs: an associate degree in health information technology, an associate degree in criminal justice and a certificate in recreational management.

“At Bucks, we continually review our majors to make sure we are meeting the needs of various fields and the needs of students who want to enter those careers,” said BCCC Dean of Academic and Curricular Services Catherine McElroy. “These changes reflect those needs.”

The 67-credit health information technology degree is designed to give students the training they need to enter the rapidly growing administrative healthcare field.  According to the American Health Information Technology Association, a projected 6,000 HIT professionals will be needed each year, but currently only 2,000 new graduates enter the field annually, according to information provided by the college.

The rapid growth is due to the number of medical tests, treatments, and procedures that are increasingly required by health insurance companies, regulators, courts, and consumers.  New jobs are expected in group physician offices, home healthcare services, outpatient care centers, nursing and residential care facilities, and hospitals, said BCCC officials.

The new degree has grown out of the popular 30-credit medical coding and billing certificate program, which has also been revised to meet industry demands, said Jean Dolan, BCCC's assistant director of public relations.  

To learn more about the health information technology degree or the medical coding and billing certificate, contact the Department of Business Studies at 215-968-8227, e-mailbusiness@bucks.edu or visit www.bucks.edu/business.

The college is also introducing a 61-credit associate degree in criminal justice, which is designed for students who wish to transfer to a four-year college. The new degree merges the correctional administration and police administration majors into a single new program, Dolan said.

For those who earn the associate degree and then complete the final two years of a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, job opportunities include FBI agent, DEA agent, police officer, probation officer, or fraud investigator, etc. To learn more, contact the Department of Social and Behavioral Science at 215-968-8270, e-mail sb@bucks.edu or visit www.bucks.edu/social.

In addition, students can now earn an 18-credit certificate in recreation leadership. Types of organizations that might employ certificate holders include summer adventure camps, municipal recreation departments, YMCAs and outdoor programming centers, Dolan said. To learn more, contact the Department of Health, Physical Education, and Nursing at 215-968-8451, e-mailhealth@bucks.edu or visit www.bucks.edu/health.

BCCC is accepting applications and registration for these and all fall semester programs.

The fall semester begins Aug. 24. Tuition is $111 a credit for Bucks County residents. Courses can be taken at the original campus in Newtown, the Upper Bucks Campus in Perkasie, the Lower Bucks Campus in Bristol and online through the college’s  “virtual campus.”

To learn more, visit www.bucks.edu/fall, e-mail admissions@bucks.edu, or call 215-968-8100.