The Costello College of Business at George Mason University announced a new, highly customizable Master’s of Science in Management (MSM) program that will launch in fall 2024.
Applications for this new modular education program are now available. While retaining the business core curriculum from the traditional MSM program, the newly designed program will allow students to focus on their career goals by affording them the opportunity to earn a certificate from schools and colleges throughout Mason, effectively customizing their education to their unique needs and career aspirations.
The launch of this new modular education program has been one of Dean Ajay Vinzé's priorities since joining the Costello College of Business in July 2022. “By reimagining our Master’s of Science in Management, we are operationalizing our belief that everything is business and that business is particularly relevant when it is applied in the context of a specific discipline like sports, technology, non-profit management, environmental sustainability, and so on,” says Vinzé. “What differentiates our program from the many degree, certification, and micro-credentialing programs available elsewhere is our ability to enable our students’ future success in a wide range of business careers, by combining graduate-level coursework in the primary business disciplines with in-depth study of a multidisciplinary subject of their choosing.”
The new program will start with a business core curriculum designed to introduce students to graduate-level concepts in each of the primary business disciplines of accounting, finance, marketing, management, and operations. Students will then choose between a certificate offered by the Costello College of Business or an approved one offered by a partner Mason college or school to customize and complete their degree program.
Victoria Grady, academic director of the MSM program, and Saul Garcia, assistant director of the MSM program, said, “We’re so excited about this new direction for our program and our school. The graduate certificate option will provide students with the flexibility to combine the business core curriculum with certificate-based coursework in topics like business analytics, information security management, non-profit/public management, conflict resolution/analysis, and environmental/sustainability management.”
Grady and Garcia added that they have a human capital and human resource management graduate certificate under development, as well as a revamped sports management graduate certificate.
In addition to the flexibility in courses that the program will offer, there will also be flexibility in delivery. The program’s core courses will be offered in a “HyFlex” (i.e., hybrid and flexible) model where students can choose to participate face-to-face in a classroom at the university’s Mason Square campus in Arlington, Virginia, or live and synchronously online, so all students will interact with professors in real time. Two hallmarks of the college’s original MSM program—being open to all majors and not requiring any work experience—will remain in place. Students can attend at their own pace, on either a full-time or part-time basis.
“This new flexibility will appeal to individuals looking to develop impactful management skills, especially recent graduates and international students,” says Grady and Garcia. “Students have been asking us about elective options for a few years. We think these business and interdisciplinary options will appeal to many students seeking to combine a business foundation with other disciplines.”