Certificates
Earn a Certificate at UNC Asheville
Certificates are not degrees, but they offer students the opportunity to build specialized knowledge that complements their academic and career goals. Whether pursuing a certificate alongside a major or as a non-degree-seeking student, learners can gain valuable skills and expertise in a focused area of study.
Explore our certificate programs to learn more about requirements and see which certificates pair well with your major. Any major may pursue any certificate program.
Certificates
Business Intelligence & Analytics
The Certificate in Business Intelligence and Analytics equips students with the essential knowledge, skills, and practical experience needed to excel in data-driven business environments. This program covers contemporary business analytics and intelligence tools and methodologies, fostering abilities in data analysis, critical thinking, and problem-solving. It also encourages students to explore various business analytics and intelligence concepts and perspectives, preparing them to become effective professionals in the business sector.
Digital & Social Media Marketing
The Certificate in Digital & Social Media Marketing equips students with the essential knowledge, skills, and practical experience needed to excel in digital marketing and strategic communication. Required foundational courses cover marketing principles, digital and social media marketing, and the ethical foundations of media production and consumption. Elective course offerings enable students to tailor their Certificate in many directions, including marketing, media, and personal branding.
Geospatial Technology Certificate
Learn to collect, analyze, and visualize location-based data using tools like GIS and remote sensing — skills now essential across government, science, business, and beyond.
Intercultural Communication
In a world that is increasingly interconnected, Intercultural Communication prepares students to work in any field that requires effective communication with colleagues, customers, and communities from backgrounds that are different from their own.
Interdisciplinary Certificates
Applied Social Science Research
The Certificate in Applied Social Science Research facilitates the development of methodological skills applicable to social research in a wide range of settings. Skills include but are not limited to: research design, interviewing, experimental design, ethnography, survey design, coding, program evaluation, inferential statistical analysis, and effective translation of data for a variety of audiences. The certificate also offers explicit opportunities to cultivate ethical, rigorous research collaborations with community partners.
Contemplative Inquiry
The Certificate in Contemplative Inquiry focuses on creating opportunities for greater inquiry, connection, reflection, insight, and communication. It does so by nurturing and supporting students’ practical and critical first-person experience and inquiry through the use of varied contemplative practices, including mindfulness techniques, meditation, focused thought exercises, beholding, deep listening, reflective writing, contemplative movement, and dialogue.
Food, Food Systems, & Culture
The Certificate in Food, Food Systems and Culture focuses on developing the student as an informed consumer of food by providing a platform for discussion of what we eat, why we eat, where our food comes from and its journey from production to consumption, and how food affects our bodies, health and lives.
Global Studies
UNC Asheville’s Global Studies program prepares you to understand the world’s cultures, economies, and politics, and to tackle its challenges from multiple disciplinary perspectives. Global Studies is available as a concentration within Interdisciplinary Studies, a minor, or a certificate.
Sustainability
Our increasingly complex and interdependent world needs critical thinkers with strong problem-solving skills who are able to address the long-term viability of social-ecological systems. The Certificate in Sustainability seeks to give students a broad understanding of environmental, socioeconomic, and humanistic systems through interdisciplinary academic preparation, community engagement, and cross-campus collaboration so that they can help develop local and global solutions for a sustainable future.
Ready for What's Next?
Interdisciplinary Studies at UNC Asheville empowers you to explore diverse subjects, merge ideas from various fields, and discover unexpected connections that can shape the future. Our program is a gateway to a world of boundless possibilities, where you can delve into the intersection of art and science, business and sustainability, technology, and social impact.