Best Master's in Health Occupations Teacher Education Programs in 2026
All 7 programs reviewed from the IPEDS database, ranked on degrees awarded and local teacher pay. CIP 13.1327.
- Most master's programs run 30 to 36 credits and take about two years, with many built to be completed part-time by working teachers.
- 4 of 7 ranked programs offer an online or hybrid option.
- Graduate programs are ranked on degrees awarded, cost-of-living-adjusted local pay, and institutional standing, not the undergraduate stats that do not describe a master's.
- 1
Cleveland State University
47score- 20Master's/yr
- Master of Education in Health Professions Education (MEHPE)
- On-campus
About the programCleveland State University's Levin College offers a Master of Education in Health Professions Education, built for clinicians rather than classroom teachers. Delivered as a cohort in partnership with the Lerner College of Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, the program draws physicians, nurses, and other health professionals who teach and want to do it more deliberately. Its coursework moves through adult learning, curriculum design and instruction, learner assessment, program evaluation, and educational scholarship, giving practicing educators a research-informed grounding in how their trainees learn. Rather than a thesis, the degree culminates in a capstone portfolio that ties the coursework to a candidate's own teaching context. This is an advanced credential for health-professions faculty, not a K-12 teaching license, and the program page notes that admission was suspended for the 2025-2026 academic year. It is a master's degree in health occupations teacher education at the master's level, based in Ohio.
Why it ranks hereSchool siteFor a graduate program we set aside undergraduate figures and weigh three things instead: how established it is, the local market its graduates enter, and the institution's standing. On the first, it is clearly established, turning out 20 master's degrees a year, a steady if smaller cohort.
- 2
University of Illinois Chicago
43score- 13Master's/yr
- Master of Health Professions Education (MHPE)
- On-campus
About the programThe University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine offers a Master of Health Professions Education designed for current and aspiring educators across the health professions rather than for licensure. Its unified 32-credit curriculum reaches broadly across the educator's work, covering leadership and management, scholarship methods, curriculum and instruction, competence assessment, program evaluation, and medical humanities and ethics, a scope that treats teaching in medicine as a full discipline. The hybrid delivery pairs roughly two-week onsite intensives for core courses with mostly online longitudinal semester work, and a mandatory one-week on-campus orientation deliberately seeds a cohort community of practice that carries through the degree. Five core courses, three to four electives, and a mentored thesis structure the experience, which is built for part-time completion within three years. That design suits busy clinicians building serious educational expertise alongside their practice. As a master's degree in health occupations teacher education, it adds to the master's-level health occupations teacher education options in Illinois.
Why it ranks hereSchool siteMaster's programs are judged differently here. Undergraduate stats do not apply, so the ranking looks at whether the program is established, the pay its graduates walk into locally, and how the university stands behind it. On the first, it is clearly established, turning out 13 master's degrees a year, a steady if smaller cohort.
- 3
MGH Institute of Health Professions
43score- 13Master's/yr
- Master of Science in Health Professions Education
- On-campus
About the programMGH Institute of Health Professions offers an online Master of Science in Health Professions Education built for mid-career clinicians already teaching, from physicians and nurses to therapists and simulation educators, and it is not a licensure program. Four concentrations, in Leadership and Emotional Intelligence, Simulation-Based Education, Artificial Intelligence, and a Customized option, let candidates shape the degree around where their teaching is headed. The mostly asynchronous format, punctuated by three days of virtual synchronous seminars each year, accommodates a demanding professional life and stretches across a flexible two-to-five-year window, while a cohort of more than 100 students keeps the interprofessional experience genuinely collaborative. Candidates close with a publication-quality capstone paper rather than a traditional thesis, and an MS-to-PhD pathway plus access to the Harvard Macy Institute and the Mass General Brigham Stratus Center for simulation signal serious scholarly reach. As a master's degree in health occupations teacher education, it adds to the master's-level health occupations teacher education options in Massachusetts.
Why it ranks hereSchool siteA master's degree earns its rank on program-appropriate signals, not undergraduate ones: established scale, local teacher pay, and institutional strength. On the first, it is clearly established, turning out 13 master's degrees a year, a steady if smaller cohort.
- 4
University of Rochester
41score- 10Master's/yr
- $62,840Metro teacher pay
- Health Professions Education, M.S.
- On-campus
About the programThe University of Rochester's Warner School of Education offers a Master of Science in Health Professions Education whose interdisciplinary roots set it apart, jointly delivered by the Warner School, the School of Nursing, and the School of Medicine and Dentistry for healthcare professionals moving into education and faculty roles. That three-school partnership makes the interprofessional emphasis structural rather than incidental, drawing physicians, nurses, and clinic personnel into a shared program rather than licensure. Candidates can pursue the minimum 30-credit degree on its own or pair it with Advanced Certificates in Online Teaching or Program Evaluation, tailoring the credential to specific educational aims. Flexible entry in any semester and full- or part-time study accommodate working clinicians. Described as technology-rich with content on artificial intelligence in health education, the program points toward the evolving tools of modern teaching. This program offers a master's degree in health occupations teacher education in New York.
Why it ranks hereSchool siteA master's degree earns its rank on program-appropriate signals, not undergraduate ones: established scale, local teacher pay, and institutional strength. On the first, it is clearly established, turning out 10 master's degrees a year, a steady if smaller cohort. Its graduates step into Rochester, NY, where elementary teachers earn a median $62,840, roughly $64,760 once local cost of living is factored in, a real-world read on what the credential is worth in that market.
Area teacher pay: Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2025, adjusted for local cost of living via U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities. A location figure, not this program's graduate earnings.
- 5
Texas A&M University-College Station
40score- 9Master's/yr
- Master of Science in Education for Health Care Professionals (EDHP)
- Online
About the programTexas A&M University offers a Master of Science in Education for Health Care Professionals, a fully online degree housed in the College of Medicine and aimed at the faculty who train the next generation of clinicians. It is built for working educators in nursing, medicine, pharmacy, dental, and dental hygiene programs who need formal preparation in teaching alongside their clinical expertise. The all-distance format keeps the coursework accessible to professionals who cannot step away from practice, and candidates choose between a 34-credit thesis track and a 36-credit non-thesis option that concludes in an applied educational project. That fork lets students lean toward scholarly research or toward a practice-focused deliverable they can use in their own teaching setting. The program prepares health-professions faculty and educators rather than leading to any K-12 teaching license. This program offers a master's degree in health occupations teacher education in Texas.
Why it ranks hereSchool siteFor a graduate program we set aside undergraduate figures and weigh three things instead: how established it is, the local market its graduates enter, and the institution's standing. On the first, it is clearly established, turning out 9 master's degrees a year, a steady if smaller cohort.
- 6
University of Maryland, Baltimore
39score- 7Master's/yr
- Master of Science in Health Professions Education
- On-campus
About the programThe University of Maryland, Baltimore offers an online Master of Science in Health Professions Education aimed at practicing healthcare professionals moving into faculty and educator roles, not at licensure. Two tracks let candidates orient the degree toward their ambitions, with an Educational Research track for those drawn to scholarship and an Educational Leadership track for those stepping into program and faculty leadership. The 32-credit program is explicitly structured for full-time working professionals, unfolding over two to three years on a fall-only enrollment cycle and closing with a capstone course rather than a thesis, a practical endpoint that keeps the focus on applied educational work. Its emphasis on interprofessional education signals a program that expects clinicians from many disciplines to learn together. The result is a manageable, career-embedded route into health professions teaching. As a master's degree in health occupations teacher education, it adds to the master's-level health occupations teacher education options in Maryland.
Why it ranks hereSchool siteFor a graduate program we set aside undergraduate figures and weigh three things instead: how established it is, the local market its graduates enter, and the institution's standing. On the first, it is clearly established, turning out 7 master's degrees a year, a steady if smaller cohort.
- 7
Bluefield University
37score- 3Master's/yr
- Master of Arts in Teaching Health Sciences
About the programBluefield University offers a Master of Arts in Teaching Health Sciences, listed among its graduate programs in the university's 2025-2026 academic catalog. The degree is oriented toward preparing educators in the health sciences field. It is a master's degree in health occupations teacher education at the master's level, based in Virginia.
Why it ranks hereSchool siteMaster's programs are judged differently here. Undergraduate stats do not apply, so the ranking looks at whether the program is established, the pay its graduates walk into locally, and how the university stands behind it. On the first, it is clearly established, turning out 3 master's degrees a year, a steady if smaller cohort.
How we rank
Each master's program is scored 0 to 100 against the other master's programs in its specialty on the measures the federal data actually supports at the graduate level: the number of master's degrees it awards each year (30%), counted as a sign that the program is established rather than rewarding sheer size: a program reaches full credit at about fifty degrees a year and awarding thousands more adds nothing, so a high-volume online degree factory earns no advantage here; the median wage for elementary teachers in the program's local area (30%), from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. The wage is the metropolitan-area figure where the school sits in a metro (about 85% of programs) and the state figure otherwise, and it is adjusted for the local cost of living using the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities, so a high nominal salary in an expensive metro does not outrank a lower salary that goes further. It is a measure of local earning potential in the field, not the earnings of this program's graduates, which are not published. The third and largest measure is a program-strength score (40%), 0 to 100, led by the institution's Carnegie research classification, so a very-high-research university outranks a small teaching college on institutional standing. It adds a bonus where the program names a national programmatic accreditor like CAEP or AAQEP, but does not lean on it, because several states approve educator preparation through their own boards rather than CAEP, and a strong flagship should not be marked down for its state's accreditation choice. A clearly identified degree and licensure pathway adds a little more, and private for-profit programs, whose graduate outcomes are documented as weaker, take a deduction. Graduation rate, admission rate, and tuition are deliberately NOT scored: the first two are institution-wide undergraduate figures that describe the wrong population, and verified graduate tuition exists for too few programs to rank on fairly. Cost is shown on each card where we have it, but it does not affect the ranking. Every master's program is ranked and shown, with no per-state cap.
- Established program size, degrees awarded per year, capped so volume alone does not win: 30%
- Local-area teacher pay, cost-of-living adjusted (BLS + BEA): 30%
- Program strength, institutional research standing plus accreditation, less a for-profit deduction: 40%
Prefer a single measure? See most popular, highest area pay.
How much a master's in Health Occupations Teacher Education program costs in 2026
Graduate tuition is priced by the credit rather than the year, and most master's in Health Occupations Teacher Education programs run 30 to 36 credits, so the total turns on a school's per-credit rate and whether you pay the in-state or out-of-state figure. Public universities are usually the least expensive for residents, while private and out-of-state rates run higher. Because IPEDS reports only an institution-wide undergraduate tuition that does not describe a graduate program, each card shows a researched per-program cost wherever a school publishes one, rather than a misleading campus-wide number.
Sticker price is rarely the final cost. Graduate students can borrow through federal Direct Unsubsidized and Grad PLUS loans, and teachers have targeted help: the TEACH Grant provides up to $4,000 a year for a commitment to teach a high-need subject in a low-income school, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness can clear the remaining balance after ten years of qualifying payments in a public school or district. Many districts also reimburse part of a master's for teachers who earn it on the job, since a graduate degree usually moves them up the salary schedule.
Sources: program data from IPEDS; the TEACH Grant and Public Service Loan Forgiveness from Federal Student Aid.
Ways to earn your master's in Health Occupations Teacher Education
Online delivery is central at this level: 4 of the 7 ranked programs offer an online or hybrid option, which fits teachers and other professionals who study while working full time. Programs are often organized as cohorts on evening, weekend, or asynchronous schedules, with any required field hours arranged near you. A typical master's runs about two years part-time, or twelve to eighteen months full-time.
The right format depends on why you are enrolling. Licensed teachers pursuing a master's for advancement or an added specialization can usually study fully online while they keep teaching. Career-changers who need an initial teaching license should instead look for a Master of Arts in Teaching or another licensure-track program, which pairs coursework with a supervised student-teaching placement or a paid residency and so includes in-person clinical time.
Sources: program and delivery data from IPEDS.
Data sources for our Master's in Health Occupations Teacher Education ranking
- Program counts and degrees awarded: IPEDS, US Department of Education. Cost figures are researched from each program's own published tuition, since IPEDS reports only undergraduate tuition.
- Program descriptions: each school's official catalog and program pages.