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New Business Degrees to Advance Your Career

​The Kellstadt Graduate School of Business is introducing two new master's degrees and an executive doctorate this fall that will help students advance in careers that are in high demand in the job market.

New Business Degrees

The Driehaus College of Business also has expanded its slate of combined bachelor's and master's degrees, which help students save time and tuition dollars to obtain both degrees.

The new programs include:

"These degrees allows us to better serve different markets, from students who are about to enter the business world, to working professionals who want to move to the next level, to executives with eight or more years of managerial experience seeking to take their careers to the highest level," says Dan Heiser, associate dean for graduate programs.

MS in Supply Chain Management

Chicago is the world's third largest handler of shipping containers behind Hong Kong and Singapore, making it a crucial supply chain and logistics hub of international commerce.

So it's no surprise that employers in the area are looking for supply chain management experts to help them operate. That's where DePaul's new MS in Supply Chain Management comes in.

"When students study supply chain management at DePaul they learn an integrated management approach," says Associate Professor of Management Nezih Altay, who teaches in the new program. "They will learn the necessary technical skills they need to succeed in this area, but they also will learn critical soft skills to help them negotiate change when they go out in the real world."

Altay says companies are seeking supply chain professionals who are well versed in the technical skills, but often find candidates are missing crucial strategic competencies that allow them to succeed in the field. These skills include change management, organizational behavior knowledge and understanding the integrated management approach.

These are skills DePaul professors already teach throughout the Department of Management by leveraging their real-world contacts. The new program blends the technical with the real-world problem-solving skills in a unique and practical way, Altay says.

"We do this through service learning and community outreach by allowing students to work on real projects in teams, so they can learn skills that you can't learn simply by reading a textbook," Altay says. "Our real world approach to learning will give our students an edge in this industry."

Read more about DePaul's MS in Supply Chain Management.

MS in Enterprise Risk Management

In the past a company's risk management was relegated to a few meetings with an insurance company, maybe a quick look at regulatory compliance rules, a check of technology systems and ensuring human resources had a handle on employee theft or competency.

Flash-forward to the recent global banking crisis, cybersecurity breaches and multi-million-dollar investor fraud, and the risk of doing business has grown exponentially.

DePaul's new MS in Enterprise Risk Management seeks to equip today's risk managers with the diverse skills they need to manage an ever growing set of company risk factors. A key distinction of the new program is its emphasis on cybersecurity risk. Students will be able to take several cybersecurity risk courses, many of which are taught by faculty of DePaul's Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media.

"The role of risk officers has been expanding over the last several years into various areas," says Carl Luft, associate professor of finance. "This degree will offer risk managers the skills they need to expand their knowledge of risk management and help them advance in their careers."

Other areas covered in the degree program include operational risk, credit risk and strategic risk.

Luft says the ideal candidate for this new degree program would be someone who is in the risk management arena looking to advance to the c-suite as a chief risk management officer.

Read more about DePaul's MS Enterprise Risk Management.

Doctorate in Business Administration

DePaul's Doctorate in Business Administration is perfectly tailored for seasoned professionals who seek to advance in their careers by developing data-centered business decision-making expertise.

The three-year, part-time program is for the working professional who has earned a previous master's degree in a business-related discipline and who has eight to 10 years of experience in management or consulting. DePaul's DBA empowers professionals to transform their organization through a mastery of sophisticated applied research skills necessary to solve complex contemporary business issues.

Read more about DePaul's DBA.

Expansion of Combined Degrees

Business students now have more cost-saving opportunities to earn both a bachelor's and master's degree in as little as five years, thanks to the expansion of DePaul's combined bachelor's and master's degree offerings.

The combined degrees allow students to take classes as an undergraduate that also count toward a graduate degree. Students can take up to three classes during their senior year as an undergraduate paying undergraduate tuition and have those classes also credited toward a graduate degree. The combined degrees can save students thousands of dollars tuition costs.

The combined degrees are available to all DePaul undergraduate students regardless of their college of study or major. The new degrees include:

  • DePaul Undergraduate Degree / MS in Entrepreneurship
  • DePaul Undergraduate Degree / MS in Hospitality Leadership and Operational Performance
  • DePaul Undergraduate Degree / MS in Human Resources
  • DePaul Undergraduate Degree / MS in Management
  • DePaul Undergraduate Degree / MS in Real Estate

The college previously launched combined degrees for Accountancy (BSB) / Accountancy (MACC) and Economics (BSB) / Economic Policy Analysis (MSEPA).

Read more about DePaul's combined degree programs in business.