Pamplin College of Business and the College of Engineering have collaborated to offer a joint master’s degree program to Virginia Tech graduate students.
The new two-year program will provide students the opportunity to earn a Master of Business Administration and Master of Industrial and Systems Engineering and will replace the current concentration in systems engineering management.
Patrick Koelling, director of graduate programs in industrial and systems engineering, called the partnership a natural marriage, noting the overlap in both fields.
“Our students often times take classes from the business school,” Koelling said. “This gets students a very technically-oriented degree in combination with the exposure to all of the business topics that companies like to see.”
The notion for a dual-degree was first contrived nearly five years ago, Koelling said, though serious discussions did not begin until March 2007. Koelling worked alongside Steve Skripak, associate dean of graduate programs in Pamplin College of Business, and with university committees in both fields.
Skripak said the original idea came about when a student working toward a doctorate in building construction came to the business school and expressed interest in receiving her MBA at the same time.
“I wondered how many other people would like to do something like that,” Skripak said. “I sat down with someone in the College of Engineering, and they were very receptive to the idea. It really just kind of germinated from that one student raising interest.”
Skripak emphasized the benefits of a diverse classroom environment.
“Students on the business track will get exposure to additional background and points of view,” Skripak said. “One of the things I think is most valuable about getting an MBA is you have people from all different backgrounds coming together bringing different viewpoints to class. You’ll see a whole lot of diversity.”
Skripak added that for industrial and systems engineering students, an MBA could be a great career advancer.
“They are getting access to a reputable, highly recognized, highly regarded MBA program,” Skripak said. “When they get into the working world, they find out they are real well educated as an engineer, but they don’t know much about business. To manage people or advance their career they need to understand how the numbers are put together.”
Students enrolled in the program would be required to complete the standard core requirements for an MBA and then use the remaining elective credit space to earn their Master of Science in industrial and systems engineering.
This arrangement between the two departments may be new at the graduate level, but students currently enrolled in industrial and systems engineering at the undergraduate level are able to obtain a business minor with just two additional courses, said Eileen Van Aken, associate professor and associate department head for industrial and systems engineering.
Van Aken said in a typical year, 60 percent of undergraduate students in industrial and systems engineering opt to receive a business minor. Because of this, Van Aken noted that considerable interest could be garnered.
“This is new, so we’re not quite sure, but we’ve often had industrial and systems engineering students have a lot interest in topics covered by college of business courses,” Van Aken said. “Of course it is a lot of credits, but we are excited about this moving forward.”
In total, students would take a minimum of 53 credit hours, three credit hours more than what is presently required of MBA candidates.
Koelling emphasized that the program was designed to ensure neither side would be forced to make sacrifices, perhaps explaining the length of the planning stages.
“Every student in that program meets or exceeds, actually exceeds, our requirements for a master’s degree anyway,” Koelling said. “When we designed it, we wanted to make sure neither program compromised in any way.”
Unlike the current industrial and systems engineering program, which on a given year sees between 35 and 50 new students, Koelling said he expected the number of students attempting the dual-degree to be smaller.
“I think it’s going to be really successful, in high demand,” Koelling said. “The challenge is that it will be very selective. We don’t see the program being very large. We don’t expect to see more than five or 10 new students enter the program each year.
“Generally each fall we have anywhere between 35 and 50 new students in our graduate program. So this is quite small in comparison. It accommodates those students much better. It is not designed for students who have working experience. They can move right into it ... without a problem.”
Admission-wise, students must meet the guidelines and criteria of both programs to be accepted, though unlike many graduate degree tracks, Skripak and Koelling’s program is not catered to a student who has just finished their undergraduate degree.
“We generally like to have students with work experience,” Skripak said. “(Approximately) 75 percent of our students, depending on the year, have worked at least one year in the business world. It makes them more ready. They are more able to contribute to class discussions and relate the academic concepts to something they have lived through.”
The process for establishing the dual-degree was done entirely through the university. Because the program came from entities inside of Tech, Skripak said there was never a need to introduce a higher outside authority.
“Both of our college committees had to review and approve, but after that its pretty much a done deal,” Skripak said. “We also did a two degree program with (Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine), but that one had to go through the University Commission on Graduate Studies and Policies.”