Undergraduate Programs
Labor Studies Degree Program
Bachelor of Science in Labor Studies
With 60 years of leadership in Labor Studies and labor education, Indiana University continues to pioneer innovative and quality education. The Labor Studies Program educates students - with special emphasis on adult learners and workers - on work, the workplace, organized labor, and the changing effects of global economic markets. The program prides itself on being not only a locally but nationally and internationally recognized, interdisciplinary, labor education program housed in the School of Social Work as of July 1st, 2007.
The credit courses are offered at all eight Indiana University campuses and worldwide via the Internet. The program prepares students and workers to assume leadership roles in labor organizations and their communities. Labor Studies is designed to serve all constituencies with a strong commitment to help working adults gain access to university-level education.
The Labor Studies faculty members bring academic expertise and valuable union experience to their instruction. They are committed to continue the strengthening of the Labor Studies Program to make it the best it can be. The program offers online and face-to-face courses to fulfill requirements for Certificate, Associate, and Bachelor of Science degrees in Labor Studies. The program offers a selected number of graduate courses.
Labor Studies is interdisciplinary; it draws from the fields of communication, economics, industrial relations, history, law, philosophy, political science, and sociology. The program integrates these disciplines in order to study work, the work process, workers’ lives and experiences; to understand the needs and questions facing labor in unions and labor organizations.
The Labor Studies Program educates current and future workers with the essential knowledge and skills 1) to strengthen the labor movement, 2) to advance trade unionism, 3) and to achieve workers rights and equity; central to the development of democratic institutions nationally and around the world.
The Labor Studies Program is a fully accredited program offering the following for-credit options:
- Bachelor of Science in Labor Studies
- Associate of Science in Labor Studies
- Certificate in Labor Studies
- Minor in Labor Studies
Students who demonstrate competency in one or more specific areas may apply to receive credit for prior learning. Labor Studies also offers a large selection of noncredit courses and programs tailored to the interests and needs of working people and their unions.
This program has distinguished alumni that hold positions of leadership around the country, including union president, bargaining committee chairperson, education director for an international union, director of organizing, union staff representative, occupational health and safety inspector, labor journalist, labor lawyer, labor educator, National Labor Relations Board staff member, executive director of a nonprofit organization, and community organizer.