#15 in 15 years ….not bad! NC State advances in the Gartner Supply Chain Program Rankings
A new Gartner 2014 Top US Supply Chain MBA Program Rankings report of top graduate supply chain programs within the United States came out yesterday – with the NC State Jenkins MBA and the Supply Chain Resource Cooperative advancing seven spots to 15th place. This follows the college’s undergraduate supply chain ranking of 24 in August, its first time in the Gartner ranking process. This is great news, considering that NC State’s business college is just over 20 years old (the college was established in 1992), and its supply chain program even younger (the SCRC was founded in early 2000).
NC State’s graduate supply chain program was also among the “biggest upward movers” since Garner’s graduate report was last published, and among those scoring the highest for internships and work experience exposure. NC State’s undergraduate supply chain program was among those scoring highest for internships.
The report notes a number of major trends that they see in the winning schools:
The broadening of supply chain curricula to reflect the reality of today’s supply chain organizations. This most certainly applies to NC State. Our program engages our 20 top corporate partners to develop projects across a wide variety of different areas, including market intelligence, logistics, inventory, value stream mapping, cost management, supply management, transportation, performance metrics, and others (see Project Breakdown,)
The exposure of more students to internships and co-ops, and more applied project work —often for sponsoring companies — on-site and in the classroom. Well – we certainly blew that criteria out of the water! At the conclusion of the Spring 2014 semester, the SCRC will have sponsored 503 graduate and undergraduate project teams, involving 1797 students and 55 industry partners since being established in 2000. During the 2013 – 2014 academic year, the SCRC deployed 56 graduate and undergraduate practicum teams working with business & industry partners (29 Fall 2013 / 27 Spring 2014).
Dramatic increases in enrollment across the board, and new supply chain degree programs being established. We have seen an increasing number of top level students come into both our MBA and undergraduate programs. We have more new scholars and partner companies than ever before, and the numbers are growing.
Top students from top programs can command a 50% premium over the average and, in many programs, new supply chain graduates handily out-earn finance and accounting-focused M.B.A.s. Ditto for NC State….our MBA graduates from our SCM program had starting salaries this year of $82,300, topping marketing and finance starting salaries handily…40% of our MBA student body now are in the supply chain concentration. 90% had internships their second year.
I am very proud of our faculty and course instructors for the incredible job they have done – but watch out for next year….we’re going for the top 10!