Back to School – What’s new with Mortuary Education

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It’s time for me to alter my running schedule.  You see, the day after Labor Day is the historic start of the new school year in my community and my morning run takes me by an elementary school. . . . And, during the school year I try to avoid the buses and relative large amount of traffic around the school so it is either an earlier run before the children start arriving or a later run when the children are settled in their classrooms.

Since it is back to school day in my community I decided it is maybe a good time to look at the state of education in the world of Mortuary Science.  A lot has changed in that realm since I attended the University of Minnesota (Go Gophers!!) back in the late 1970’s and graduated from the School of Mortuary Science there in 1980.

In my college days there was no online learning and if I wanted a mortuary degree I needed to attend in person.  According to these statistics from Best Colleges, in 2022 54% of college students took at least one online class in that year and 26% of college students took college classes exclusively online during that year.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

A lot has changed in college systems and the way students manuever through them in the 40 plus years since I received my degree.  Today there is all kinds of options, price points, and opportunities for students to create their own paths to the degree of their choice and getting licensure in the mortuary profession is no different in that regard.  Students of today can find a path to educational success in the mortuary field without having to move out of their home community to do so.

According to the American Board of Funeral Service Education (ABFSE) there are 58 post-high school programs accreditated with that organization.  For information on them and a listing of them you can click here.  43 of the 58 programs offer some form of “Distance Learning” in receiving their mortuary education.  For a listing of those schools that offer over 50% of the educational requirements online  click here.

For each of those 58 accredited programs you can also find an information sheet, at that website, similar to this one for my alma mater, the University of Minnesota.  You might be interested to look at your alma mater and take a look on the direction of enrollment and passage rate of the national exam.

More Mortuary Education related information:

• Congrats to the Class of 2025 — This episode of the NFDA sponsored podcast “A Brush with Death” features four graduates of the Class of 2025 and their thoughts and ambitions as they move into the employment of Death Care.

• “My Future” occupational website — Data on the future trends in employment, compensation, and requirements of those interested in the Mortician, Undertaker, and Funeral Arranger fields.

• San Antonio College Mortuary website—  San Antonio College in Texas is one of a very few mortuary education institutes that operates a going-concern mortuary as part of their college experience.

• The Funeral Service Foundation — This is the NFDA’s charitable arm and if you know of someone interested in a Funeral Service Education it is one of the first places to look for scholarship opportunities.

More news from the world of Death Care:

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