Smeal, World Campus launch online supply chain management master’s degree

University Park, Pa. — Penn State’s Smeal College of Business and World Campus are offering a new master’s degree program in supply chain management that will allow working professionals to earn a graduate degree by taking courses online.

The Master of Professional Studies in supply chain management (MPS/SCM) starts in the fall 2007 semester. Applications for admission will be available online on July 9 and will be accepted until August 1. The degree will take approximately two full years to complete, including summers. Students beginning in fall 2007 will conclude their studies in August 2009.

The MPS/SCM program is designed specifically for current supply chain professionals, and emphasizes problem-solving competencies and leadership skills that are critical to leading business transformations through integrated supply chain planning and execution.

The curriculum offers 26 credits in supply chain management, including four credits in project management and a four-credit professional paper. As the culminating experience, the professional paper contributes to the student’s professional development by demonstrating the student’s ability to apply advanced supply chain management knowledge to a supply chain-related problem or situation.

All courses are developed and led by Penn State faculty and are delivered online via the University’s World Campus. One course falling at the end of the student’s first year includes a short residency on Penn State’s University Park campus.

Smeal and World Campus will continue to offer the 12-credit online graduate certificate program in supply chain and information systems. The curriculum in the restructured certificate program matches the first 12 credits in the master’s degree program. Students who begin the certificate program in fall 2007 are able to complete it by August 2008. Students may begin the certificate program while applying for admission to the degree program, with credits earned transferring to the degree program, provided strong academic performance has been demonstrated.

Students who have previously earned 12 credits in the supply chain graduate certificate program have largely completed the first half of the master’s degree. They may begin the second year of the MPS/SCM program as early as fall 2007, provided they are admitted to the degree program.

Students applying to the professional MPS/SCM degree program must be admitted by both the MPS/SCM program and the Graduate School at Penn State. Complete admissions requirements are available online at www.smeal.psu.edu/mps

Smeal’s supply chain program was ranked as the top such program in North America in a survey of supply chain academics and practitioners published in Supply Chain Management Review. The Supply Chain and Information Systems program is also consistently ranked among the top programs by other media, such as U.S. News and World Report and BusinessWeek.