This fall, when normal operations are expected to resume at The University of Texas at Dallas in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, new educational options will be available to graduate students at the Naveen Jindal School of Management.
One of them is a fully online option being added to the master’s degree in supply chain management program. The online option joins existing on-campus and hybrid (which includes on-campus and online components) formats.
Applications for the online program are being accepted now, Dr. David Widdifield, the MS in Supply Chain Management director, said.
All three program formats provide aspiring and veteran supply chain professionals a highly ranked, experiential-based master’s degree combining concepts and practice that can be applied immediately in the workplace, said Widdifield, a clinical associate professor in the Jindal School’s Operations Management Area.
“In just the last few years, supply chain professionals have witnessed radical changes sweeping our global economies, industries, markets and society at an unprecedented rate,” he said. “The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the challenges associated with those changes. To navigate them successfully, supply chain professionals need to be equipped with the latest knowledge and skills in order to develop agile, flexible supply chain solutions for today and tomorrow.”
A New Response to Career, Professional Development and Lifestyle Needs
According to U.S. News & World Report, online college programs are growing more than 7% annually — with half of students enrolling in online courses and/or programs.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is projecting a 5% career growth in supply chain from 2018 to 2028 with a median salary of $74,600. Jobs requiring a master’s degree at entry are expected to rise by more than 13% by 2028.
Widdifield said it is no surprise that, with those projected growth rates, online degree programs are fast becoming attractive for prospective graduate students.
“This includes busy professionals seeking programs to enhance their career potential, as well as undergraduate students who are beginning their careers and want to pursue an advanced degree to give them an advantage over other job applicants,” he said. “Online programs offer students a convenient, flexible option to obtain a master’s degree that fits their individual professional development and lifestyle needs.”
In addition to the flexibility that the fully online version offers to domestic students, it enables international students to enroll in more than one online class per semester. (Students with F1 visas currently enrolled in the hybrid or on-campus versions of the program are limited to one online class per semester.) Enrolling in the fully online version of the program eliminates that restriction for international students, whether they live locally or abroad.
The fully online program also opens up new options for fulfilling the internship requirement, including enrolling in an internship class that allows students to work on special projects with their current employers, as long as they are separate from their regular day-to-day duties. International students can find an internship in their home country.
Other points of convenience for program applicants:
- The program’s GRE requirements are waived for applicants who earned at least a 3.6 grade-point average in their undergraduate or graduate work at an AACSB-accredited business school.
- UT Dallas alums need a 3.5 GPA or higher to waive the GRE requirement.
- If an applicant’s undergraduate degree was obtained in a country with English as its primary language or if the university in that country had English as its primary method of instruction, then the TOEFL or IELTS English-language-proficiency test requirements are waived.
