Accreditations and STEM Designations
The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)
The Business School at WPI is an accredited member of AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
As the world’s largest business education alliance, AACSB International—The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) connects educators, students, and business to achieve a common goal: to create the next generation of great leaders. Synonymous with the highest standards of excellence since 1916, AACSB provides quality assurance, business education intelligence, and professional development services to over 1,500 member organizations and more than 785 accredited business schools worldwide. With its global headquarters in Tampa, Florida, USA; Europe, Middle East, and Africa headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, AACSB’s mission is to foster engagement, accelerate innovation, and amplify impact in business education. For more information, visit aacsb.edu.
For over a century, AACSB Accreditation has been synonymous with the highest standards in business education. Accredited schools have successfully undergone a rigorous review process conducted by their peers in the business education community, ensuring that they have the resources, credentials, and commitment needed to provide students with a first-rate, future-focused business education.
The Business School, formerly the Department of Management, received initial AACSB accreditation in 2003, and successfully completed a re-accreditation review in 2018.
Program-Specific Competency Goals
Common to all Undergraduate and Masters programs:
Evidence-based problem solving: Able to frame a problem and use evidence and analytic reasoning to develop and implement practical solutions.
Team-based collaboration: Able to effectively work together to pursue the common goal of solving complex problems.
Undergraduate Programs:
Business Knowledge/Fluency: Able to assess the financial, organizational, and technical viability of proposed business solutions.
Communication Skills: Able to communicate project ideas and results in clear and well-organized presentations and conversations.
Masters Programs:
- Master of Science in Business Analytics:
- Designing effective analytics solutions
- Role of analytics in improving organizational performance
- Master of Science in Information Technology:
- Designing effective IT solutions
- Role of IT in improving organizational performance
- Master of Science in Innovation and User Experience:
- UX Process Framework: Able to use the UX-driven innovation paradigm to develop appropriate processes for designing competitive products and services.
- UX Research Framework: Able to apply UX research to assess the efficacy of technological products/services and identify opportunities for improvement.
- Cross-functional: Able to discuss key issues related to working across the boundaries between technical and business disciplines.
- Strategic Thinking: Able to generate practical, unique, and usable business insights that create a long-term competitive advantage.
- Master of Science in Management
- Cross-functional: able to discuss key issues related to working across the boundaries between technical and business disciplines.
- Master of Science in Operations and Supply Chain Analytics
- Operations and Organizational Excellence: Able to identify the role of operations in improving organizational performance and how operations is linked with other functions.
- Designing and Improving Operations: Able to use appropriate tools and analysis methods to design and improve processes and systems.
PhD in Business Administration
- Analytical/Methodological Skills: Demonstrate a detailed knowledge and analytical/methodological skills of their areas of specialization
- Original Research: Engage in and conduct original research in their chosen area of specialization
- Communicate Research: Communicate the results of their research in a clear and concise manner
- Teaching: Prepare to be able to teach college-level courses in their area of concentration (for those students who expect to enter teaching careers)
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
(ABET)
The School of Business Industrial Engineering Program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET.
ABET is a specialized accreditor that accredits college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. With ABET accreditation, students, parents, employers, and the society we serve can be confident that a program meets the quality standards that produce graduates prepared to enter a global workforce.
Program Mission
The mission of the Industrial Engineering (IE) Program at WPI is to prepare undergraduate students for professional engineering practice, providing the foundation for careers of leadership in challenging global and technological environments. We strive to accomplish this through:
- An innovative, project-based curriculum
- An emphasis on industrial engineering skills with system applications
- A flexible curriculum responsive to student interests and changes in the competitive environment
- An environment that encourages faculty/student interaction
- A culture that encourages the active involvement of students in their learning
Program Educational Objectives
The educational objectives of the IE Program describe the expected accomplishments of graduates during the first few years after graduation. They include:
- Industrial Engineering Knowledge and Design Skills. Graduates should be able to support operational decision-making and to design solutions that address the complex and changing industrial engineering problems faced by organizations, using current concepts and technologies.
- Communication Skills. Graduates will be sought out to represent their companies both for internal and external communications based upon the excellence they will have achieved through persistent updating of their knowledge of new communication tools and by taking advantage of opportunities for critical peer review.
- Teamwork and Leadership Skills. Graduates should be able to serve as change agents in a global environment, based on strong interpersonal and teamwork skills, an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility and a willingness to take the initiative.
Student Outcomes
Specifically, graduating students should demonstrate that they attain the following:
- an ability to identify, formulate, and solve complex engineering problems by applying principles of engineering, science, and mathematics
- an ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety, and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors
- an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences
- an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts
- an ability to function effectively on a team whose members together provide leadership, created a collaborative and inclusive environment, establish goals, plan tasks, and meet objectives
- an ability to design and conduct appropriate experimentations, analyze and interpret data, and use engineering judgment to draw conclusions
- an ability to acquire and apply new knowledge as needed, using appropriate learning strategies
STEM Designations
WHAT IS STEM?
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math and is a designation given to programs and degrees in those fields of study.
WHAT IS STEM DESIGNATION?
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) are important skills relevant to the economic growth of the United States and its overall competitiveness in the global market. Because the United States has seen a decline of qualified STEM workers over the past several decades, the country has allowed institutions to assign STEM designation to educational programs meeting specific criteria.
WHAT DOES STEM DESIGNATION MEAN FOR STUDENTS?
Enrolling in and successfully completing a STEM designated degree program may allow international students to remain in the United States for an extended period of time to help with the demand for STEM professionals.
Traditionally international students who enter the United States on an F-1 visa were eligible for up to twelve months of OPT (optional practical training). Students who graduate from a STEM designated degree program may be allowed to extend their stay in the US pending offer of employment from an e-verify employer. Find out more information.
For additional information on OPT and CPT please contact our International Student and Scholars Office.
The Business School STEM Designated Programs:
- MS Business Analytics
- MS Information Technology
- MS Innovation with User Experience
- MS Operations and Supply Chain Analytics
WPI welcomes and values the perspective of the university’s diverse, global community.
We have support systems in place to assist our students from around the globe and resources to continually strengthen our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity on campus.