Wake Forest University School of Business announced on Feb. 4 that it will offer a new Master of Science in Business Analytics, the latest in a series of programs capitalizing on the recent explosion of the big data and business analytics fields.
The new program will launch in July 2016 and will last ten months. During the program, students will learn how to analyze large data sets, how to mine data and construct predictive models, and how to chart relationships between data and organizational performance.
Wake Forest's new program joins a host of other business analytics programs founded in the past several years. Just last week, Virginia Tech's Pamplin College of Business announced the launch of a one-year master of science in business administration with a concentration in analytics. California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo Orfalea College of Business announced in 2015 that it will launch a Master of Science in Business Analytics in fall 2016. UC San Diego and the University of Dallas announced the launch of similar programs in 2014, while Arizona State University launched one in 2013.
This explosion of programs isn't limited to the United States. Amsterdam Business School and France's ESSEC Business School also both launched similar programs in recent years.
Officials at these schools and at Wake Forest say that these programs fulfill a growing demand for business professionals who understand how to interpret numbers, given the proliferation of data coinciding with the rise of the Internet and social media.
“We have built this program specifically to address the ever-increasing marketplace demand for employees with unique, superior talent in business analytics. The MSBA program is designed to develop principled professionals who can leverage analytics skills with business acumen and add immediate value to any organization across a range of industries," says Charles Iacovou, Sisel Distinguished Dean of Wake Forest School of Business, in a press release.
According to the press release, students who graduate from Wake Forest's program could go on to fill roles including management analyst, consultant, business intelligence analyst, marketing manager, or market research analyst.
Visit Wake Forest's website for more information on the program and on how to apply.
Image credit by Jijithecat at English Wikipedia [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
