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Arthur Thomas considers project management the “art and science of getting stuff done.” With Syracuse University’s College of Professional Studies launching a new masters degree in project management, Thomas, the program’s director, said the degree will help those already in the workforce.

SU is offering the 30-credit degree fully online, with its first cohort joining in the spring 2023 semester. The program is targeting specific groups including military students and students in the middle of their career.

“The skills acquired in this MPS program are applicable in every industry and will help students reach the next level in their careers quickly, setting them apart from their peers,” wrote Ryan Williams, the associate dean of academic affairs at the College of Professional Studies, in an email to The Daily Orange.

In the program, students will learn how to create project plans, manage schedules and budgets, identify risks and communicate status reports to stakeholders at all levels within an organization.

SU will provide the first students who join the program with a tuition discount through the Start Now incentive grant, reducing their tuition from $1,802 per credit hour to $1,000.

The college is also looking to have military-connected students — those on active duty, guard, reserve and veterans as well as including spouses and dependents — join the program. Like the Start Now incentive recipients, military-connected students will pay $1,000 per credit hour for the spring semester.

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A photo posted by suprofessionalstudies

After the spring, military-connected students will continue to get a reduced tuition at $1,350 per credit hour.

“Project management is an increasingly high-demand career choice for members of the military,” said Michael Frasciello, dean of the College of Professional Studies, in a press release.

The degree is well-suited for active and prior military members, given their applicable project management experience, ability to solve complex problems and their strategic expertise, said Liz Green, the college’s executive director of online student success.

“The degree can help military-connected students increase their skill set for further work in their military fields, and/or help set them up for project management roles in the community after their military careers,” she said.

Thomas said other schools and universities offer project management courses and programs within various specialty areas, such as business management, product development, theater productions and construction project management.

Projections indicate millions of project management positions will be created in the next few years, Williams said.

In a recent job report, The Project Management Institute predicted that over two million new project management professionals will be required to meet global needs by 2030.

“We felt that it was important to be able to allow them to broaden their education without necessarily having to establish a particular presence on campus … it allows them to (get a degree) as they are still working,” Thomas said.

However, he said, there wasn’t a universal degree at SU that covered project management entirely.

“(The new program) allows us to create this degree first as a kind of an umbrella degree,” Thomas said. “And then involving very specialty areas so that individual preferences can be something that we cater to as we go forward.”

Green said that the university is committed to providing access to post-secondary educational opportunities for people who do not have access to traditional academic institutes. Broadening access to education is what drives the university to expand its online programs, she said.

Thomas said he hopes people understand that project management is not necessarily a stand-alone degree, but can be an additional skill within students’ other specialties.

“So if you have an MBA, or you have other types of degrees, this would (work) as a complement to that. So it’s not something that can be exclusive. It’s something that you might find as an additional skill,” Thomas said.

Published on September 20, 2022 at 11:01 pm