Masters Theses

Abstract

"The last five years have seen a significant increase in the popularity of non degree graduate certificates. This increase has raised questions about the value of graduate certificate programs from the perspective of students, alumni and industry employers. Do certificate programs provide real world skills and knowledge valuable to industry? Do they serve as effective recruiting tools for the university? Do they provide opportunities for students to meet their professional goals in terms of salary increase, promotions, and the like? The present research is specifically aimed at answering these questions. Surveys that assess perceptions of value of graduate certificates to key stakeholders (students, alumni, and industry) are developed. The results were analyzed from the perspective of current graduate certificate students, alumni and industry employers of the Engineering Management and Systems Engineering (EMSE) department at Missouri University of Science and Technology. Results provide guidance to engineering managers, engineering educators and other engineering professionals on the value added to the workforce by engineering graduate certificate programs. The important results from this study show that students and alumni of the graduate certificate program perceive and agree on the value of the programs, while industry participant disagree. The graduate certificate programs are effective recruiting agents for the Missouri University of Science and Technology. The industry survey reveals a significant point that 45% of the participants are not aware of graduate certificate programs. Sixty five percent of the industry survey participants agree that the students of EMSE at Missouri S&T possess skills necessary to work in real world, however over 95% believe that various skills including soft skills are most essential for a student to succeed in industry"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Long, Suzanna, 1961-

Committee Member(s)

Elrod, Cassie, 1979-
Murray, Susan L.

Department(s)

Engineering Management and Systems Engineering

Degree Name

M.S. in Engineering Management

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2010

Pagination

viii, 77 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 74-76).

Geographic Coverage

United States

Rights

© 2010 Susmitha Akula, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Education -- Graduate work -- United StatesEducation, Higher -- Marketing -- United StatesUniversities and colleges -- Case studies -- Study and teaching (Graduate)

Thesis Number

T 9598

Print OCLC #

679731597

Electronic OCLC #

911036319

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