Syracuse University’s Martin J. Whitman School of Management has announced the launch of a master’s analytics degree.

BusinessAnalytics@Syracuse will add to Whitman’s extensive MBA@Syracuse program, a graduate program that includes degrees in accounting, finance, supply chain management and entrepreneurship. BusinessAnalytics@Syracuse will be offered both online and as a full-time, on-campus Master of Science in business analytics.

“We’re adding business analytics because it’s a high-growth area with potential for outstanding opportunities for our students,” said Donald Harter, associate dean of masters programs at Whitman. “Based on national trends, we expect tremendous growth in business analytics.”

The Harvard Business Review called the position of business analyst or data scientist the “sexiest job of the 21st century.”

Business analyst jobs are predicted to increase by 22 percent by 2020, according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2018, the U.S. alone could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 professionals with deep analytical skills, according to a Mckinsey & Company data report.

BusinessAnalytics@Syracuse will appeal to students interested in full-time programs on campus, fully-employed students and veterans or active duty military members, Harter said. He added that a business degree will not be a prerequisite for admittance to the program and said students with mathematics, statistics, information technology and engineering degrees will be considered for the program.

2U, an online degree-building company, is helping SU launch BusinessAnalytics@Syracuse. The company created the MBA@Syracuse degree using 2U’s cloud-based software, which also supports online programs outside of Whitman.

Engineering@Syracuse, iSchool@Syracuse and Communications@Syracuse for the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the School of Information Studies and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, respectively, are among other programs 2U has provided to SU.

Andrew Hermalyn, 2U’s executive vice president and regional general manager, oversees the company’s relationship with SU. He said 2U’s goal is “to help universities become the best digital versions of themselves.”

Because students live in a variety of different time zones, Hermalyn said online classes will occur at a wide range of times during the day, including on weekends. Classes are available to students across all devices and in any location on the planet, so students can work full time and be with their families wherever they live around the globe, he said.

“It’s really extending the power of the education at Syracuse to those not able to be there physically on campus,” Hermalyn said.

2U provides 29 different programs at 14 universities around the country, including Yale University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Northwestern University, Hermalyn said. In terms of enrollment, MBA@Syracuse is one of the top 10 most popular programs, he added.

The average class size in Syracuse’s 2U programs is between 12 and 18 students, Hermalyn said.

“It becomes very intimate. These students get to know each other very, very well,” he said. “What we say at 2U is, ‘There’s no back row. Everyone’s front and center. You can’t hide in the back of the class.’”

Although students can complete the BusinessAnalaytics@Syracuse program exclusively online, other 2U programs have residency weekends, when online students visit campus to meet with their classmates and professors.

“They want to meet Otto, they want to see the Carrier Dome, they want to meet professors and their students in person,” Hermalyn said. “So it’s a way to further integrate the online students with the university community and with the campus.”

Students will take courses in data analysis, decision-making, accounting analytics, financial analytics and marketing analytics to complete the 36-credit degree, Harter said. Whitman expects to continue to expand its MBA@Syracuse program, Harter said.

Classes for the business analytics program will begin in July.

Published on March 1, 2016 at 11:33 pm

Contact Matthew: mguti100@syr.edu | @MatthewGut21