Your Future in Healthcare
Build practical skills in healthcare operations, business, data and communication. Learn to manage resources, analyze information, improve processes and solve real-world challenges while preparing for administrative and management roles across healthcare.
Why Earn Your Health Systems and Administration Degree at St. Edward’s?
Healthcare needs professionals who understand how complex systems work — and have the skills to make them work better. At St. Edward’s, you’ll build practical knowledge across healthcare, business, data and technology while developing skills in analysis, communication, ethics, problem-solving and leadership. With personalized faculty mentorship and real-world experience in Austin’s growing healthcare community, you’ll prepare to contribute from day one, help organizations navigate change and improve the delivery of care.
Hands On Learning
Learn Healthcare From Every Angle
Explore the forces shaping modern healthcare through courses in healthcare management, global public health, data analysis, health communication and medical ethics. Then customize your education with electives in business, leadership, communication, science, policy, statistics and computing.
Real World Skills
Build Skills You Can Put to Work
Learn to analyze data, communicate across organizations, understand complex healthcare systems and approach challenges strategically. An internship or practicum is built into the major, giving you the opportunity to apply what you’re learning in a professional healthcare setting.
Sought After Skills
Lead with Business Knowledge
Build your healthcare and business foundations through an interdisciplinary education that includes opportunities to learn across Health Systems Administration and the Munday School of Business. Gain practical knowledge in operations, finance, project management and organizational leadership while developing the skills to manage resources, improve processes, collaborate across teams and solve complex healthcare challenges.
Support
Learn From Experienced Mentors
In small classes, you’ll learn from faculty who bring academic expertise, industry experience and professional connections into the classroom. Your professors and career mentors will get to know your goals and help you explore pathways in investment analysis, banking, financial planning, consulting, corporate finance and beyond.
Life as a Health Systems and Administration Student at St. Edward's University
As a Health Systems and Administration student, you’ll explore healthcare from perspectives that go far beyond the clinical setting. One class might have you examining healthcare data and another exploring medical ethics, global public health, communication or management.
You’ll learn alongside students and faculty with different perspectives and professional experiences while connecting what happens in the classroom to the rapidly evolving healthcare industry around you. And because the program draws from disciplines across the university, you can shape your experience around the areas of healthcare leadership that interest you most.
Frequently Asked Questions about a Health Systems and Administration degree from St. Edward's University
The BA in Health Systems and Administration program is highly interdisciplinary and benefits from faculty expertise across the university. Students develop practical skills in data analysis, communication, management and more.
The program builds on core courses such as Data Analysis for Health Professionals, Health Communication, Global Public Health, Health Care Management and Medical Ethics that establish a solid foundation for health services leadership. Students will also gain hands-on experience by participating in an internship directly related to their studies.
Required elective courses allow students to tailor their degree by choosing from classes in business, communications, leadership, social and natural sciences, and statistics and computing. The interdisciplinary design of this degree equips graduates for management in health care organizations that are continually changing and evolving to meet the challenges of health care services in the 21st century.
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The Health Systems and Administration program is flexible, with a relatively small number of required courses, allowing room for electives, a minor or even a second major.
Major Requirements: The Bachelor of Arts in Health Systems and Administration requires a total of 36–38 hours of major courses, which include seven core courses and five electives.
Required Courses: Students complete these seven required courses totaling 21 hours:
- Current Issues in Healthcare
- Health Communication
- Issues in Global Public Health
- Data Analysis for Health Professionals
- Special Topics in Management (Health Care Management)
- Medical Ethics
- Health Systems and Administration Internship/Practicum
Required Electives: Students choose at least 15 hours from select courses in five areas. Courses can be chosen from one or more of these areas:
- Statistics, computing and data analysis
- Business, leadership and management
- Communication
- Science, health and wellness
- Ethics, social issues and policy
Credits Accepted:
- Up to the allowable 66 credits of the associate's degree for a health sciences program may transfer into the Health Systems and Administration program.
- Workforce courses will count for general elective credit
- Candidates must still complete the entire major and general education requirements, even if doing so would put them above the 120 credits required for the degree.
Health care services are the largest sector of the U.S. economy, creating ongoing demand for healthcare administrators. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a 32% growth in employment of medical and health services managers through 2030. Currently, the average entry-level salary for health managers and administrators is $65,000. Health Systems and Management majors can look forward a variety of career paths, including:
- Medical and Health Services Director/Assistant Director
- Medical Clinic Director
- Medical Systems Administrator
- Medical Operations Manager
- Medical Office Manager
- Medical Practice Manager
At St. Edward’s, our faculty are outstanding scholars, practitioners, teachers and mentors who bring energy and enthusiasm to our vibrant learning community. They take pride in getting to know you, helping you achieve your goals and celebrating your successes.
View a list of our faculty members and their contact information on the School of Health Sciences webpage.
Highly Successful Health Systems and Administration Program
Healthcare is changing rapidly — and organizations need leaders who can manage that change. Through interdisciplinary coursework, hands-on experience, faculty mentorship and connections to Austin’s healthcare community, you’ll prepare to contribute to the systems that make high-quality care possible.
Preparing for Your Future in Healthcare
Austin puts you in the middle of a growing healthcare and medical innovation ecosystem. Through your required internship or practicum, you’ll apply what you’ve learned about healthcare management, communication, data and ethics in a professional setting while building practical skills, industry connections and an understanding of healthcare operations. You’ll graduate prepared to pursue opportunities in healthcare program coordination, clinical and departmental administration, medical office and practice management, healthcare operations, and medical and health services management.
More Ways to Learn. More Ways to Lead.
St. Edward’s is committed to developing the knowledge and skills needed to strengthen healthcare today and into the future. Alongside degree programs like Health Systems Administration, professional education and certificate programs offer additional ways to build specialized, industry-focused skills. Together, these options allow students to explore the depth and breadth of healthcare, expand their expertise and continue developing as the industry evolves.