Notwithstanding any other provision of law or the regulations of any administrative agency the educational institutions of East Carolina University, North Carolina Central University, North? Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Appalachian State University, and Western Carolina University, are hereby authorized and shall be eligible colleges to participate in the sixth-year program adopted by the State Board of Education February 4, 1965, to provide a minimum of 60 semester hours of approved graduate, planned, nonduplicating instruction not beyond the master’s degree for the education of superintendents, assistant superintendents, and principals of public schools. The satisfactory completion of such program and instruction shall qualify a person for the same certificate and stipend as now provided for other eligible educational institutions. (1965, c. 632; 1967, c. 1038; 1969, c. 114, s. 1; c. 608, s. 1; 1971, c. 1244, s. 10.)