Data continues to drive everyday decisions within businesses, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Collat School of Business is educating the current and future workforce on the best ways to use data to drive success.
The Collat Management Information Systems online graduate degree program will add a concentration in business analytics, beginning in summer 2020. The business analytics concentration will enhance student analytical skills, including how to leverage data-driven decision-making to support organizations.
Students within the concentration will take courses that examine the challenges associated with managing, analyzing and visualizing data using industry-leading software such as SAS and Tableau. The business analytics concentration builds upon a revised core curriculum that includes courses on desktop analytics with IT tools, business intelligence strategy, and IT trends and emerging technologies. The concentration was designed to meet the needs of organizations hiring for this new, developing field.
“We began the process by analyzing several months of job postings to identify the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities for a business analytics professional,” said Paul Di Gangi, Ph.D., graduate MIS program director. “We then compared the results of this analysis against survey data from our local business community and other leading analytics programs to develop the curriculum for our concentration.”
The concentration was developed by UAB MIS faculty in conjunction with leading IT professionals in Birmingham.
“Birmingham is a hidden gem for understanding emerging business needs for analytics,” said Jack Howard, Ph.D., interim chair of the UAB Department of Management, Information Systems and Quantitative Methods. “The financial, health care and insurance sectors located in Birmingham represent some of the largest industries in need of understanding how to analyze data in a meaningful way, and we designed our new concentration with these needs in mind.”
In addition to business analytics, the graduate MIS program offers concentrations in cybersecurity management and IT management. The program is offered entirely online, and students can complete the 30-hour program part time or full time. In 2019, the program was ranked as the 18th-best Online Graduate Information Technology program and ninth-best for veterans.
To learn more about the graduate MIS programs, visit businessdegrees.uab.edu/mis-degree-masters.