Wednesday, Jan 3, 2018
Program will prepare students for careers in demand
by Rachel Stengel '14
Rider University will offer a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major in business analytics in the spring of 2018. Rider is the first private college or university in New Jersey to offer an AACSB-accredited bachelor’s program in business analytics.
The new major, which is offered through Rider's College of Business Administration (CBA), aims to prepare students for a highly in-demand, marketable career, as business analytics have become a corporate necessity across all industries. According to a widely cited report by McKinsey Global Institute, the U.S. could face a shortage of experts with deep analytic and data skills in 2018. The major hopes to fill a critical need for professionals who can look creatively at data and distill it into valuable business insights.
Rider launched a minor in business analytics in 2016, but CBA Dean Cynthia Newman said the College wanted to provide a more comprehensive course of study.
“The new bachelor’s program is designed to provide students with rigorous, multidisciplinary training so they can turn data into actionable insights,” she said. “Graduates of this program will be able to articulately communicate these insights to improve business decision making.”
Students will also have the ability to customize their course of study by selecting elective courses within the six tracks available: marketing, finance, programming, statistics, global supply chain management or health care management. The specific tracks allow students to better prepare themselves for careers as operations research analysts, market research analysts, management analysts and finance analysts.
The business analytics major will also emphasize experiential learning, which is a main facet of Rider’s Engaged Learning Program. In addition to multiple projects embedded in certain required courses, students will complete a capstone course in which they will solve a real business problem and communicate their findings to a real-world client.
“We want to ensure students in this program can showcase the skills they’re developing in the classroom in a real-life situation,” Newman said. “Business analytics majors will be thoroughly prepared to help businesses make better decisions using a variety of statistical and quantitative methods.”
For more information about the business analytics major, please contact Dr. William Amadio at [email protected] or 609-896-5254.