Proposal for Provisional Approval
(10/5/2014)
Contact Person: Yung-Jae Lee, Associate Dean of Graduate Business
Faculty Task Force Members: Wenting Pan (Chair), Anh Nguyen, Linda Herkenhoff, Tomas
Gomez, Arnav Sheth, Chris Jones, Ameera Ibrahim, Yi Ching Kao, and Jyoti Bachani
The signatures below indicate approval for the proposed degree program named above on a Provisional Basis.
_____________________________________________________________________
Dean of SEBA Date
_____________________________________________________________________
Date Provost
_____________________________________________________________________
Vice President for Finance Date
_____________________________________________________________________
Chair of GPSEPC Date

I.
Introduction
Since the advent of Internet technology, companies have been collecting a lot more data than they can analyze. According to Science Daily, over 90% of the world’s data have been generated in the last two years. Over time analyzing large data sets — commonly called big data — has become a key basis of competition, fostering new waves of productivity growth and innovation.
Together with many experts, IBM has published a white page in 2012, declaring that big data
(data analytics) is the new competitive advantage of organizations.
However, there is significant scarcity of talents who can elicit managerial implications from the data and present them for decision making. A 2011 McKinsey report estimates there will be
140,000 to 190,000 unfilled positions of U.S. data analytics experts by 2018. The Harvard
Business Review published a article in 2012, indicating that “the shortage of the data scientist is a serious constraint in some sectors.”
It is against such a backdrop, SEBA is planning to launch the Master of Science in Business
Analytics Program in July 2015.
The MS in Business Analytics program aims to develop graduates who can perform sophisticated analytics and transform analytical results into actionable business opportunities and decisions.
We have presented the program design to the SEBA advisory board on September 23, 2014 and to the newly formed Analytics Advisory Board on October 3, 2014 to seek their feedback. An overwhelming feedback from the Boards can be captured as follows: “very timely”; “there is not enough supply of business analytics professionals in the market”; “Your graduates will have jobs right after the program.” This certainly supports McKinsey’s finding. We have incorporated the feedback from the Boards into our revised curriculum design.
Because analytics is relatively new field, not many colleges offer it as a degree program. In the
Bay Area, there are only three schools offering Masters in Analytics/Data Science. They are
Stanford, Berkeley, and University of San Francisco. Considering the breadth and depth of both new and old economy companies in the Bay Area, there definitely is a market for Saint Mary’s to enter.
MS in Business Analytics is designed to be a student-centered program because the program is focused on enhancing incoming student’s ability and guiding them to meaningful and sustainable employment. This is consistent with SMC’s mission to develop the whole person, academically, spiritually, and professionally. The program also focuses on teaching students to employ their critical thinking skills to extract meanings from seemingly meaningless sea of data. The program will also emphasize clear communication of the findings to various stakeholders. Critical thinking and communication skills are the hallmarks of SMC’s liberal arts tradition.
The new program MS in Business Analytics is very much in line with the strategic plan of
SEBA’s continued growth with diversified portfolio of degree programs with minimum
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cannibalization. This is also consistent with the College’s academic blue print in which the
College outlines sustained growth through development of new graduate and professional programs.
II.
Target Market
Our target market is as follows.
1.
Recent college graduates with strong quantitative background (e.g., math, engineering, science, economics, business), who are interested in pursuing a career in the fast-growing field of business analytics
2.
Professionals who are interested in developing their skills in analytics or changing careers to the analytics field
Although it is hard not to have any cannibalization when a new program is launched, we do not believe that there is much overlap with our current graduate programs in terms of target market because MS in Business Analytics is a focused skill-based program, unlike the MBA ones that focus on business in general. Program that could be somewhat impacted include MSFAIM and
PMBA.
Admission Criteria
Applicants to the MS in Business Analytics program must hold a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent from an accredited college or university. If an applicant’s overall grade point average
(GPA) is 2.8 or better in their undergraduate studies, the GMAT requirement will be waived. If an applicant’s overall GPA is below 2.8, a minimum GMAT score of 550 is required. Applicants who do not have strong quantitative background or have taken quantitative courses a long time ago are required to finish a pre-approved, self-paced online quantitative course through a third party before starting the Program. International students must have a minimum of 550 on the
TOEFL PBT exam or 80 on the TOEFL iBT test.
III.
Competitive Analysis
Because analytics is a relatively new field, the market for MS in Business Analytics is not as competitive as the matured MBA market. In the Bay Area, there are only three schools offering
Masters in Analytics/Data Science: Stanford, Berkeley, and USF. Because Stanford program is offered through its Statistics department, the program is theoretical and highly technical. It is not a typical professional degree program and hence we do not see it as a competing program. UC-
Berkeley’s program, offered fully online, is initiated by the School of Information, not Haas. The true and head-on competition in the Bay Area is USF. Hence, instead of Stanford, to add one more sample program for comparison purpose, we decided to include USC MS in Business
Analytics program, which was launched recently.
SMC USF USC
UC
Berkeley
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Duration 1 year
Full-time evening
1 year 1 year
Full or part time
1 year
Format
Launched by
Number of Courses
Electives
School of
Business
11
No
Full-time day
School of
Business and
Department of
Computer
Science
22 short courses
Yes
School of
Business
9
Yes
Online
School of
Information
9
No
Tuition
Hand-on Projects?
Other Features
AACSB
Accreditation
$32,800
Yes
Online Optional
Boot Camp
Yes
$42,315
Yes
Summer face to face Boot
Camp
Yes
$44,041 $60,000
No
Flexible program
Yes
Yes
Emphasis on data science
Yes
As can be seen in the table above, all programs have one year duration. Most schools offer about
10 full courses, with the exception of USF, which offers 22 short courses, equivalent to 11 full courses. Both USF and USC offer electives while SMC and UC Berkeley offer lock-step program. All schools offer hands-on projects or practicum with the exception of USC. Both SMC and USF have boot camp while USC and UC Berkeley do not.
Advantages/Differentiations of the SMC Program

Our program delivers value: robust coverage of the discipline and topics with lower tuition

Our program allows students to work or intern during day times and thus reduce opportunity costs to students

Our program balances quantitative skills with a stronger emphasis on understanding of business concepts and applications than the competition does. This enhances student’s ability to see the big picture of analytics and thus their potential to manage the analytics function for an enterprise.

Our program integrates Professional Development workshops into student’s experience and learning, preparing students to become well-rounded business professionals
IV.
Business Plan with Budget
In order to successfully launch the program, we need to hire one tenure track faculty with a Ph.D. in data analytics or a closely related field. The hiring process should start immediately so that the new faculty member is ready by the start of the academic year 2015-2016. To provide adequate program related services to students and coordinate real life projects with companies for the program’s Practicum course, we also need to allocate a half time equivalent staff member. Due
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to relatively high potential demand, we expect the program to perform well financially. The conservatively projected three-year budget for the program is provided as follows.
School of Economics and Business Administration
M.S. in Business Analytics (MSBA) Program
3 Year Projections
Assumptions
Number of Cohorts
Number participants per new cohort
Program Tuition
Number Courses
Tuition Revenue
Faculty & Staff Expenses
Full Time + Part Time Faculty Cost
Director MSACC Program
Additional Staff Member (1/2 time)
Benefits for Program Faculty and Staff (31%)
Faculty Development Expenses
Subtotal Faculty & Staff Expenses
Operating Expenses
Room Rental (Moraga Campus)
Printing and Copying Costs
Marketing & Recruitment
Marketing & Recruitment - Provost Supported
Program Initiatives/Student Services
Supplies and Services (e.g., software, servers, cloud storage)
Student Scholarships
Subtotal Operating Expenses
Total Expenses
Net Contribution
Net Contribution as % of Gross Revenue
11 11
Year 1
1
13
Year 2
1
16
Year 3
1
20
$33,000 $33,700 $34,500
11
$429,000 $539,200 $690,000
$170,000 $170,000 $170,000
12,000 12,000 12,000
30,000
65,720
30,000
65,720
30,000
65,720
15,000 15,000 15,000
$292,720 $292,720 $292,720
$0
11,000
$0
11,000
$0
11,000
15,000
15,000
5,000
30,000
0
5,000
30,000
0
5,000
25,000
35,000
25,000
35,000
25,000
35,000
$106,000 $106,000 $106,000
$398,720 $398,720 $398,720
$30,280 $140,480 $291,280
7.06% 26.05% 42.21%
We anticipate some faculty development cost, which would help our current faculty up to speed with the new field so that we can deliver high quality teaching and learning experience for students. Certain purchase of software and programming tools as well as some hardware (e.g., servers for students to handle big data) is likely to occur. This is reflected in “supplies and services” in the budget.
V.
Program Learning Outcomes
The learning outcomes of the program are as follows.
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Graduates of this program will be able to:
1.
Perform sophisticated quantitative analysis
2.
Translate data analytics into actionable business decision-makings
3.
Communicate effectively
4.
Identify potential ethical issues related to business analytics
VI.
Curriculum
The program is cohort-based one-year full-time program composed of an optional boot camp, 11 courses, including the practicum. The program’s content delivery method is traditional face-toface classes offered in the evenings from 6 pm to 10 pm. The program location is on campus.
Summer Quarter
Data Analysis
This course focuses on classical statistics applied to business decision problems. Topics include
Descriptive Statistics, Probability and Probability Distributions, Interval Estimation, Hypothesis
Testing, Experimental Design, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Linear Regression. This course involves extensive use of Excel and introduction to R.
Programming for Analytics
The course introduces the basic concepts and techniques of software development using key modern programming languages (e.g., Python). Topics include data structures, control structures, data input/output, exception handling, object-oriented programming, and debugging.
Data Science and Management
This course focuses on data acquisition, data storage, data base design (e.g., relational database), data query, and information security. SQL and Database Management Software such as Access will be introduced in the course.
Autumn quarter
Advanced Data Analysis
This course builds on Data Analysis course and introduces a set of advanced data analysis tools.
Topics include Logistic Regression, Non-linear Regression, Time Series Analysis,
Nonparametric Methods, Bayesian Probability Updating, and Decision Analysis. This course involves extensive use of Excel and introduction to SAS.
Business Communication for Data Analytics (0.5 course)
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This course provides essential concepts and skills related to business communication with data.
Ethics in Analytics (0.5 course)
The course covers ethical issues in data management and analytics.
Supply Chain Management and Analytics
This course covers many approaches to address supply chain management issues and opportunities. Topics include Process Analysis, Linear Programming, Integer Linear
Programming, Queuing Models, Inventory Models, Simulation, and Project Management. This course involves extensive use of Excel.
Winter Quarter
Business Intelligence and Analytics
This course covers business intelligence concepts and predictive modeling techniques, including a collection of current practices and computer technologies used to transform business data into useful information and support the business decision-making process. Topics include data warehousing, business reporting and performance management, data mining, text mining, and big data. Technologies utilized in the course include SAP Business Warehouse and Crystal
Reports.
Marketing and Analytics
This course focuses on the applications of analytics in key marketing areas, including market segmentation, new product and service design, revenue optimization, pricing and yield management, and distribution decisions.
Essential marketing concepts and theories are introduced as needed.
Finance and Analytics
This course focuses on the applications of analytics in finance and related fields through econometric analysis and financial modeling. Essential finance concepts and theories are introduced as needed.
Spring Quarter
Data Visualization and Story Telling
Students learn various techniques and tools to present analytical results visually, communicate information clearly, and articulate the business insights revealed by analytics effectively.
Students will be exposed to widely used data visualization software packages (e.g. Tablo) to present data dynamically: visual querying linked multi-dimensional visualization, geographical information system (GIS), animation, personalization, and actionable alerts.
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Practicum
This is the capstone course of the Program. Armed with the knowledge and skills they learn through the program, student teams take on real life analytics projects and will present and defend their findings and recommendations to faculty and analytics experts.
Professional Development Program (Co-Curricular)
Students are expected to participate in the Professional Development Program (PDP), and are required to attend at least 5 workshops through the program. PDP offers professional development workshops (e.g., negotiation, managing teams, and interviews) to enhance student’s potential to advance their careers. This is a co-curricular component of the Program and does not constitute a course.
VII.
Faculty Resources
Although the program’s home department is Operations and Quantitative Methods, the program is interdisciplinary in that it will draw faculty resources from other departments including
Accounting, Finance, Marketing, and Mathematics. In spite of available faculty resources, we do need to hire a tenure track faculty with expertise in Data Mining and/or Artificial Intelligence because deploying a tenure track faculty on those areas is critical for the successful delivery of the program. Because the program is cohort based, there is no course sharing with other graduate business programs. Also, hiring a qualified tenure-track faculty member is essential to meet the
AACSB requirement for the Program.
VIII.
Assessment
Due to its concerted efforts to obtain the AACSB accreditation, the SEBA has developed the culture of assessment. Although SEBA has successfully obtained the initial accreditation, SEBA needs continuous assessment of all the programs in order to ensure the reaccreditation. The new program MS in Business Analytics will be treated exactly the same as all other graduate business programs in that the program learning outcomes will be assessed in an ongoing basis. The new program director of MS in Business Analytics, along with the program faculty, will lead the timely completion of the necessary program assessments.
IX.
Review of Library Resources and Information Literacy (by Sarah Vital)
Overview
The Saint Mary’s College Library actively supports the School of Economics and Business
Administration through the acquisition, collection, arrangement, storage, and accessibility of the materials and information needed for study in the discipline by students and faculty. The librarian works closely with the departmental liaison to identify individual items or general themes of material to collect. The librarian assists students develop information literacy skills through in-class presentations, online tutorials, and individual reference appointments.
Books and Videos
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For the 2014-2015 budget year, minus the amount encumbered for continuing resources, the business materials allocation is $24,333; this amount is used to purchase new monographs, ebook packages, reference material, and videos in various topics to support the current undergraduate and graduate Business Administration, Accounting, and Economics curriculum.
Because the topics within business are so varied, the collection is best examined according to appropriate Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) instead of raw collection numbers.
The following table compares the SMC collection within eight key LCSHs related to topics covered in a business analytics program with three universities currently offering such graduatelevel programs.
LC Subject Heading SMC Drexel 2
3
University of San
Francisco 1
10 3
Arizona
State
University 3
5 Business Planning – Statistical
Methods
Business Intelligence
Statistical Decision
Organizational Effectiveness
Data Warehousing
Data Mining
Commercial Statistics
Information Visualization
62
19
386
27
96
58
29
761
269
672
108
666
250
168
147
82
492
217
515
69
60
160
168
1053
146
696
146
99
The holdings in Saint Albert Hall Library are obviously small compared to the larger schools with larger budgets and established programs. To provide reasonable support for the proposed program, Link+ cannot be relied on solely, and all subject areas must be strengthened. Though already fairly large, the current budget allocation for business alone cannot absorb the needed funds to strength the holdings in these subject areas. A one-time infusion of funds to bring the collection to competitive levels would be helpful to ensure enough adequate resources for student research and study right away.
Scholarly Literature and Electronic Resources
Periodicals
Peer-reviewed and scholarly journals are an area where the SMC Library stands out. SMC currently owns or has immediate online access to many of the peer-reviewed, academic titles
1
University of San Francisco offers an MS in Analytics, offered jointly by the
University’s College of Arts and Sciences and School of Management
2
Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania offers an on-campus, two year MS in Business Analytics program.
3
Arizona State University offers an MS in Business Analytics in face-to-face, traditional classes, as well as 100% online.
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recommended by Magazines for Libraries that cover subject areas such as business intelligence, business statistics, and computer applications in business and management.
Title
International Journal of Business Intelligence and Data
Mining
Journal of Management Systems
Decision Support Systems
Journal of Competitive Intelligence and Management
Journal of Organizational Excellence
Journal of Business Ethics
Business Analyst
Business and Society
Journal of Economics and Business
Journal of Business Research
Journal of Applied Business Research
Journal of Business Strategy
Journal of Business and Economics Statistics
Print or Electronic holdings
No holdings
No holdings
1995- present
2007-2008
2000-present
1982-present
No holdings
1960-present
1995-present
1995-present
1992-1998; 2009-present
1980-present
1983-2008 (rolling 5 year embargo)
1990-present Business Strategy Review
Outside of those specifically recommended titles, over 11,000 additional business and economics related titles are accessible electronically through one of the Library’s over 165 article and dataset databases. Specifically, the “office and personnel management” and “industrial management” are the most applicable sub-subjects in this area, providing nearly 500 titles electronically to all members of the SMC community, including those outlined above.
The five titles currently not accessible can be reviewed for potential subscription pending additional funding.
Indexes and Databases
As mentioned above, the Library subscribes to over 165 electronic databases. We break down our numbers into major subject areas or disciplines, and 22 resources are classified as
“Business.” Of these, the following may be particularly useful for the coursework in and study of business analytics:
For data and other special financial and statistical interest:
 Mergent Online
 Standard and Poor’s NetAdvantage


Value Line Research Center
 Morningstar Investment Research Center
Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
 Key Business Ratios
 Reference USA (includes OneSource)
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


Euromonitor Passport GMID
Statistical Datasets
RAND Statistics
For periodical literature:
 ABI / Inform (includes Wall Street Journal)
 Business Source Premier
 Business Abstracts (with full-text)
 Econlit
 Emerald
 The Conference Board Business & Economics Portfolio
Software
An area of growth in electronic resources is datasets bundled with analysis software. Such products pose a challenge for the Library. We are limited with our physical and technological capacity to add workstation-based software and strongly prefer to add resources that can be IP authenticated and accessed “from the cloud.” However, we have one example of such a resource: the recently added Morningstar Direct , requested for support of the MS-FAIM program and other financial management courses, both undergraduate and graduate.
Loaded data and software products, such as Morningstar Direct are an area the Library will to continue working with SMC Information Technology Services and the academic departments on finding workable solutions.
To this point, the Library has not purchased and administered standalone software. ITS and/or departments fund the cost and ITS maintains the hardware and software updates needed for specialized software (i.e., SPSS ). Software for analysis (i.e., SAS Enterprise Miner , Business
Performance Experience ) is undoubtedly a resource that will be needed for this program, so it is important to clarify the Library’s inability to administer those resources as a general rule.
Information Literacy
AACSB Accreditation Standard 15
4
states that the learning experiences of the college business curriculum should include such areas as communication abilities, ethical understanding and reasoning abilities, analytic skills, use of information technology, and reflective thinking skills.
Searching for, retrieving, evaluating, and using informational sources is a vital learning outcome, and one the Business Librarian is ready, willing, and able to assist with. In addition to the traditional guest lecture, the Business Librarian is available to be involved further in the development of assignments and projects to best incorporate information literacy, and in creating alternative means of instruction, such as online tutorials or learning modules.
4 http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/business/standards/aol/standard15.asp
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With Information Literacy additionally identified as one of WASC’s Five Competencies for
High Education, as well as the College’s own Institutional Learning Outcomes for the Master’s
Degree, 5 faculty will want to insure that Information Literacy is fully integrated into the new program’s curriculum. I would be happy to collaborate with faculty to
1.
identify courses and assignments appropriate for Information Literacy Learning
Outcomes
2.
provide library instruction for those courses
3.
design assessment for those learning outcomes.
The current Graduate Business programs do not have a formalized plan to meet this information literacy needs.
Conclusion
The College has committed to increasing the Library's materials budget for at least the next 10 years in accordance to a WASC recommendation. We have used the increase in funds to purchase more electronic materials as well as traditional print books and media items, and it has made a big difference in what materials students and faculty have access to.
However, to close the resource gaps identified in this review, the Library would need approximately $2,000 in start-up funding to retrospectively add key monographs titles, and up to
$3,500 in continuing funding to cover periodical subscriptions. If additional databases or datasets are needed, those should be identified as soon as possible so that we can examine the financial and support costs of subscribing.
Regarding information literacy issues, the librarian will contact the department to discuss how information literacy goals can be met in the courses.
5 http://www.stmarysca.edu/sites/default/files/attachments/files/13%20dec%2012%20Institutional%20Learning%20Outcome%20Master
%27s%20Degree%20FINAL%2011-11-13.doc
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