A master’s degree in women’s and gender studies may soon be offered for students at the University of Wisconsin.

A committee of UW Board of Regents members will meet this week to review the proposed master’s program. If the program is approved and later passed by the Board of Regents in March, the program could be instated as soon as next fall, according to women’s studies professor Caitilyn Allen.

“All the feedback we’ve gotten so far has been positive,” Allen said.

Establishing the master’s program has been a three-year effort, which started with a survey of alumni to determine possible interest in the program, according to Allen. Then, in the past year, the Academic Planning Counsel reviewed and passed the program.

The program would be an addition to the already offered undergraduate major and doctoral minor, Allen added.

Women’s studies instructor, Marianne Bloch said she hopes there will be a large response to the program, however, only two or three students will be admitted each year. Bloch said the number of admitted students would most likely increase as the program grows, but resources are currently limited for the program.

“At the moment, the [lack of] resources that are available are limiting the people that can be admitted,” Bloch said.

In addition, a language requirement for the master’s program could possibly limit students from acceptance into the school, according to Bloch. However, she said the language requirement is important because the program would focus on international gender relations and fulfill a lot of different needs.

“I think, in general, it will be a small program that will grow each year,” Bloch said.

UW junior Jessica Krasnick, who completed a women’s studies course on Cultural pluralism in Educational Policy, said the master’s degree in women’s studies is an important asset to the university in order to keep its reputation as a dominant university.

“[Seats in the program] will be pretty coveted,” Krasnick said.