The Program Learning Outcomes (PLO) for this program are:

• Explain the importance of funeral service professionals in developing relationships with the families and communities they serve.
• Identify standards of ethical conduct in funeral service practice.
• Interpret how federal, state and local laws apply to funeral service in order to ensure compliance.
• Apply principles of public health and safety in the handling and preparation of human remains.
• Demonstrate technical skills in embalming and restorative art that are necessary for the preparation and handling of human remains.
• Demonstrate skills required for conducting arrangement conferences, visitations, services, and ceremonies.
• Describe the requirements and procedures for burial, cremation, and other accepted forms of final disposition of human remains.
• Describe methods to address the grief-related needs of the bereaved.
• Explain management skills associated with operating a funeral establishment.
• Demonstrate verbal and written communication skills and research skills needed for funeral service practice.

As a central goal, this program recognizes the importance of funeral service personnel as:

• Members of a human services profession
• Members of the community in which they serve
• Participants in the relationship between bereaved families and those engaged in the funeral service profession
• Professionals knowledgeable of and compliant with federal, state and local regulatory guidelines in the geographic areas where they practice
• Professionals sensitive to the responsibility for public health, safety and welfare in caring for human remains

The program will have at least the following objectives:

• To enlarge the background and knowledge of students about the funeral service profession
• To educate students in every phase of funeral service and to help enable them to develop proficiency and skills needed for the profession
• To educate students concerning the responsibilities of the funeral service profession to the community at large
• To emphasize high standards of ethical conduct
• To provide a curriculum at the post-secondary level of instruction
• To encourage student and faculty research in the field of funeral service

Funeral Service Education graduates will complete 63 semester hours of coursework in the following disciplines:

See our Academic Catalog listing of required courses for the Funeral Service Education.

Classroom and laboratory instruction are located at our Whitehaven Center, 1234 Finley Rd. in Memphis, Tennessee.