A new ranking shows that the bachelor’s degree program in Supply Chain Management at the Naveen Jindal School of Management is one of the top undergraduate programs in North America.
Gartner’s 2022 Top 25 North American Supply Chain Undergraduate Programs report places The University of Texas at Dallas at No. 8, up from No. 19 in 2020.
The ranking comes in the midst of a global supply chain crisis that finds companies struggling to recruit and retain qualified employees. Between 2020 and 2030, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 30% increase in the hiring of logisticians — professionals who analyze and coordinate an organization’s supply chain.
Program Director Dr. Monica Brussolo, an associate professor of instruction in the Jindal School’s Operations Management Area, said the top 10 ranking is great news for students considering a career in the field.
Gartner’s methodology ranks programs on three criteria — program scope, industry value and program size.
Brussolo said one thing that sets the Jindal School supply chain management program apart from other top programs is the educational emphasis or program scope. The Jindal School supply chain program emphasizes all three pillars of the supply-chain network: sourcing, operations and logistics.
“If we were to spend time looking at all the programs, there seems to be a tendency of primarily concentrating on logistics and transportation,” she said. “Nowadays, what we experience with the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the pieces of the supply chain puzzle that became so critical was sourcing, which is different than logistics. We have a curriculum that satisfies all three pillars. In conversations with the industry, we hear that they feel we are preparing more rounded students because they have a better understanding of other critical pieces or different parts of the supply chain.”
Brussolo stated that the students in her program are trained in analytics and the use of data to support the decision process in the supply chain. They have a strategic advantage as they see the bigger picture, having knowledge of the entire supply chain and how the different processes are interconnected.
Another aspect of the high industry-value score the program received, she said, is the industry experience that Jindal School supply chain students already have by the time they graduate. Most students will have completed one or two internships by then, giving them an advantage in absorbing crucial industry knowledge prior to graduation.
Some of the companies that hire JSOM supply chain students on a regular basis for internships and jobs are Amazon, Ericsson, FedEx, Lockheed Martin, Mary Kay, PepsiCo, Qorvo, Target, Texas Instruments, Toyota Motors and UPS.
The program’s size — a little more than 200 students — is on the small side as compared to other, older, programs in the top 10. Brussolo understands that since the program is less than ten years old, there is room for growth, which could potentially translate to an even higher score in future rankings.
Bottom line, Brussolo said, is that earning a bachelor’s degree in supply chain management from a top 10 school like UT Dallas gives graduates a distinct employment advantage during these uncertain times.
“The global supply chain is the area that got hurt the most during the pandemic,” she said. “Multinational companies are looking to hire supply chain professionals to solve those problems. Having the creativity, the knowledge and the willingness to find those solutions is critical. The students that we are graduating are qualified to do just that, which means that they will get well-paid jobs and have successful careers.”
