An independent study of student outcomes commissioned by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors at the direction of the North Carolina General Assembly places the Institute for Advanced Analytics’ pioneering degree program, the Master of Science in Analytics, in the top-5 among 315 graduate programs across the 16 universities of the UNC System, in terms of the median lifetime return-on-investment (ROI).
Data reported for 2019-20 show a median incremental lifetime ROI of over $3.1 million (i.e., projected earnings beyond those with a bachelor’s degree alone) for our graduates. The Institute’s own data on student outcomes suggests the lifetime ROI for its students is significantly higher—and conservatively estimated to be as much as twice what is reported in the study.
The findings are somewhat obscured by the use of Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) designations, the taxonomy of academic programs developed by the U.S. Department of Education. As the first degree program in the field more than a decade before the advent of a CIP code specific to data science and analytics, the Institute adopted “Data Modeling/Warehousing and Database Administration” (CIP 11.0802) as the closest approximation for the Master of Science in Analytics. The 11.0802 code is used by three degree programs in the UNC System, with the other two located at Appalachian State University and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The Institute’s graduates account for 119 of the 157, or 76%, of the degrees conferred in 2019-2020 academic year reported in the study.
Less than half of the 315 graduate programs in the study had an ROI greater than $1 million. The study concludes the many of the high-return programs, such as the Master of Science in Analytics, are aligned to critical workforce needs of North Carolina.
