The MSOM Degree Program Continues to Thrive in its 40th Year!

The Master of Science in Operations Management graduate degree program continues to thrive. This applied management program for working professionals attracts managers and professionals in various business sectors, industries, military branches of service and government offices. In the 2014-2015 academic year, more than 850 students were enrolled in MSOM courses.

The program is offered at the University of Arkansas’s flagship Fayetteville campus, at live Graduate Resident Centers, and via distance learning online. The program is hosted on three active duty bases including Little Rock Air Force Base at Jacksonville, Arkansas; Naval Support Activity Mid- South at Millington, Tennessee; and the Air Force Special Operations Hurlburt Field base at Fort Walton Beach, Florida. These sites and the option of online classes allow the program to reach a diverse student population among career fields and undergraduate majors.

Image of six staff and faculty members

The MSOM program offers students flexibility by operating in 8-week terms, remaining low cost, and having an online option for all program courses. This flexibility accommodates students employed full-time by Fortune 500 companies such as Walmart, Sam’s Club, Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt Transport, Fed Ex, Lockheed-Martin, and Pratt & Whitney. We are also proud to be affiliated with the military and have many current military members and veterans from all branches of service stationed at our host bases and throughout the world.

Operations Management coursework emphasizes practical knowledge in reas such as project management, economic decision-making, supply chain management, human behavior analysis, quality management, and operations research, as well as many other areas of importance to today’s manager. Program content focuses squarely on the concepts, methods, and tools that are essential to the successful management of work processes, projects, and people in a wide spectrum of organizations. The curriculum has an Industrial Engineering perspective on the science of management and equips graduates to carry out their managerial responsibilities more efficiently and more effectively. Students are able to select from 29 graduate courses to make up the ten required to complete the degree.

The curriculum is presented by outstanding faculty members who are drawn from the University’s IE Department and from businesses throughout the country. Six IE faculty members are actively involved and over 70 adjunct faculty members teach in the program. The program recruits business professionals who are academically qualified and have accrued extensive managerial industry experience in the specific subject that they teach. Additionally, in 2015, the program added the first full-time operations management instructors to assist with program administration as well as carry a full teaching load.

In 2014, the MSOM program increased admission and graduation requirements. For admission consideration, students who are not native speakers of English and who do not have a conferred master’s degree from an accredited U.S. college or university must submit a 550 paper-based score or an 80 internet-based score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). Before taking any graduate classes in the Operations Management program, such students must also demonstrate proficiency on one of the following test of written English: TOEFL IBT (26), ELPT (75) or GRE/GMAT (4.0). The MSOM program also aligned the graduation GPA requirement with the Industrial Engineering Department. The requirement was increased from the Graduate School requirement of 2.85 to the Industrial Engineering requirement of 3.0.

Photo of Emily NicholsA strength of the program is the dedicated staff. The program’s assistant director for faculty development, Emily Nichols, was selected as the University of Arkansas Staff Senate Employee of the Quarter for the 1st Quarter of 2014-2015. Emily holds a master’s degree in Higher Education from the University of Arkansas.

Another of the program’s top performers is Jerra Hill. She received the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering Support Staff Member of the Year Award for 2015. Jerra joined the Department in the spring Photo of Jerra Hill of 2011 and serves as the fiscal support analyst for the MSOM program. She is credited for making significant improvements to processes related to student accounts and financial aid.

Another strength of the program is a core value of continuous improvement. The motto, “we practice what we teach” guides the program goal to always improve. In 2014-2015, the program began offering advanced project management and began development of updated courses in change management, homeland security systems and lean systems to meet both student and industry needs.
More information concerning the Operations Management Program can be found at http://operations-management.uark.edu.