The program, announced Friday, is designed to accommodate students who may not have come in as education majors but want to gain a New York state teaching certification. The coursework will be similar to the curriculum for students who enter as education majors, but the program will present the courses in a different order so students can complete their college education on time.

It is more accommodating and better suited for students who don’t know what they want to do the minute they step on campus, said Douglas Biklen, dean of the School of Education.

“What this program says is that a student who’s further along, say toward the end of their sophomore year, may say, ‘I’m an English major, I’m a math major, I’m a science major, I’m in chemistry or physics, or whatever, and I’d like to be able to teach,’” Biklen said. “What this allows students to do is be able to get a teaching credential and go out and teach even though they’re kind of starting a little bit later in the game.”

The fifth year of the joint program will be treated as a year of graduate school, said Marie Sarno, program specialist for the School of Education, meaning undergraduate financial aid will not carry over. But the university will automatically provide a one-third-tuition discount for the fifth year, she said.

To receive a professional teaching certificate in New York state, teachers must possess a master’s degree. Students usually graduate in four years with a degree in education and a degree in a specialization of their choice. They can enter the workforce, as with an initial certificate with a bachelor’s degree, right away and eventually go back to get their master’s degree to earn the professional certificate, perhaps part time while keeping their job, Biklen said.

Under the new joint degree system, students receive the undergraduate and master’s degrees at the same time at the end of five years. They can also obtain a master’s degree in about a year less than they would if they were to get their undergraduate degree first, rather than concurrently.

“So this is a way to allow people to get into teaching even though they’re coming into it a bit late,” Biklen said. “The advantage for the student is that instead of doing a year and a half or two years, they’re able to do the degree in a year at the master’s level.”

The problem in the past was that students who decided they wanted to be teachers after a year or two of college had a hard time fitting in the requirements to get the degree. Now students who transfer into the program can complete it without having to worry as much about finishing on time, Sarno said.

“You can do our traditional dual program — we’ve had students start as late as the sophomore year and fit it all in — but I think some of those people might look at this and say, ‘Yeah, but I can have more flexibility and not be as crazy or stressed if I do the extra time and get the master’s at the end,” she said.

The new program will draw in students who couldn’t pursue the career before, Biklen said. In the past, they had to tell some students to wait and get a master’s degree, which would take more time, he said.

The program has been in the works for about a year and a half. Its strongest advocates have been professors Joanna Masingila and John Tillotson, both professors in Arts and Sciences and the School of Education, Biklen said.

Biklen said he hopes the new program will be a popular choice.

“I think for young people there’s a lot of interest in education because it’s seen as an area where you can make a difference in society,” Biklen said. “Our hope would be that students see this as an opportunity to get trained and get experience teaching.”