New Executive MS in Management Science Degree Offers Flexibility

by Jimmie Markham - September 6th, 2022 - Academics

The Executive Education Area in the Naveen Jindal School of Management has brought together multiple online Executive MBA programs and Executive Masters programs — including a new master’s in Management Science degree — under one umbrella. The newly restructured Global Leadership Programs allow students greater flexibility and the opportunity to connect and engage with a wider network.

John Barden, associate dean for Executive Education in the Jindal School, said that students are always front of mind when he and his staff and faculty make program changes. “We understand how important it is for our students to maintain a proper work-life-school balance,” he said. “Our students are trying to juggle not only their jobs as busy executives but also family and continuing-education responsibilities. We know this isn’t easy to do, so we do whatever we can to help them maintain that balance. This realignment of some of our programs is an example of how we do that.” The Global Leadership programs are geared toward working professionals, midlevel professionals targeting the executive track, C-Suite executives and aspirants who are looking to fill in some skills gaps, or people who just need plenty of flexibility from a graduate-level program — highly mobile managers, parents or volunteers, for instance.

“Because our programs are fully online, students can participate from anywhere,” said Rhonda Bush, director of the Global Leadership programs. “They can keep up their travel. Or even if they are transferred to a new location, students don’t have to switch programs because they’ve moved away from their college or their university. Students are able to continue with their program and log in from anywhere that has an internet connection.” Bush said military members would also benefit from any of the Global Leadership programs since they tend to be highly mobile and might be stationed anywhere around the world – the Jindal School’s military members are able to take the program with them. The MBA offerings — the Global Leadership MBA, the EMBA with an emphasis in Project Management and the EMBA with an emphasis in Product Lifecycle/Supply Chain Management — allow students in each program to complete their core courses with students in the other programs while specializing in their area of choice. The executive MS programs being offered under the Global Leadership umbrella — the new Management Science master’s degree and the Executive MS in Supply Chain Management — give students the opportunity to enroll in classes that also overlap with the MBA core. All MBA and MS programs can choose from the following for their elective options: business analytics, leadership, international management, finance, marketing, organizational consulting, project management, strategic HR and supply chain. The project management and the supply chain programs also offer an academic certificate in their respective areas — included in the degree program with no additional credits or costs added. Dr. James (Jim) Szot, director of the Project Management program, said the four core courses comprising the Graduate Certificate in Project Management are aligned with standards and guides published by the Project Management Institute. “These courses help both emerging and experienced project managers become more confident in their practice of project management,” he said. “They also help experienced project managers prepare for PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP) certification exam and emerging project managers prepare for the Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) certification exam. Both master’s degrees with an emphasis in project management and the graduate certificate are accredited by PMI’s Global Accreditation Center for Project Management Education Programs (GAC). “UT Dallas was one of the first universities to have its project management degree programs accredited by the PMI GAC in 2005,” Szot said. “We have since twice completed the rigorous reaffirmation of the accreditation process.” Students who enroll in any of the Supply Chain programs in the Executive Education Area benefit from having the same instructors from the Jindal School’s No. 4 ranked MS in Supply Chain Management program.   Bush said that whatever Global Leadership program a student chooses — the professional certificate, the MS, the MBA or even a dual MBA-MS — they can do so knowing that they are all sister programs coordinated by the Global Leadership Programs administrative team.   “The MBA students are in the same courses with the MS and academic certificate students, so they can take advantage of a wider network, which is important for business executives,” she said. “We offer highly flexible options to students who want to launch or broaden their international careers.”