In an article earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal examined the rise of specialty master’s degree programs within many top business schools, programs that focus on subjects ranging from international finance to the science of management.
According to the Journal report, these new programs have grown in response to student demand for shorter, more focused options than the traditional, two-year general management MBA. Schools that already offer specialty programs are expanding those they have and others are adding such programs for the first time, the Journal added.
One example is the new master’s degree program in finance now available at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. Launched this year, its inaugural class has 27 students, but Sloan hopes it will eventually grow to 60 per class. The one-year program provides detailed finance education, including some doctoral-level coursework, without all of the general management training of an MBA.
“It might be a lesser-known type of program, but in terms of quantitative finance skills and the shorter time period, it wins,” Shane Torchiana told the Journal. Torchiana chose the new program over the traditional MBA because he thinks it will help him achieve his very specific career objectives – to advance from asset management to analyst and eventually fund manager – most expeditiously.
Several similar programs are in place or being developed at other business schools. Usually 12 months long instead of the MBA’s two years, they often include some elements of the traditional MBA curriculum, but they are usually more technical, with less emphasis on general management skills.
“The master’s in finance degree isn’t designed for broader management positions,” Debra Luchanin, program manager of MIT’s master’s in finance program, told the Journal. “We’re gearing students up for more specialized quantitative positions, such as asset management.”
The specialized programs offer a shorter, more direct path for students who have very specific career goals, such as Torchiana. They also don’t carry the five-year work experience requirement of many MBA programs. Specialized master’s degreee programs more often accept students with just a year or two of experience, the Journal reports.
For these and other reasons, the appeal of such specialized master’s degree programs appears to be on the rise, according to the Journal. According to data from business school accrediting agency the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the number of such programs rose from 614 in 2006-7 to 645 in 2008-9. Enrollment in these programs, likewise, has grown, from 24,527 in 2006-7 to 29,907 two years later.
To read the complete Wall Street Journal article, click here.
Read the full article: Some Students Opt for Shorter Specialized Master’s Programs over Traditional Two-Year MBAs