Davenport Praises Institute

Wall Street JournalWriting in the Wall Street Journal, Tom Davenport (author of the bestseller Competing on Analytics) praised the Institute’s innovative approach to graduate education as a model to be emulated. Davenport is critical of what he sees at other universities, where analytics degree programs are typically placed in a single school and, as a result, offer a narrow perspective. Lamenting the lack of faculty collaboration, Davenport asks “But why can’t we all get along? The earliest graduate degree in analytics, the Master of Science in Analytics at North Carolina State, was a cross-university initiative from its beginning in 2007.” First proposed by Dr. Michael Rappa in April 2006 and launched with a 3-year gift from SAS, the MSA program has become a model of collaboration for interdisciplinary programs, delivering an unparalleled track record in student outcomes for six straight years. “It’s not easy to get academics to work together across schools,” Davenport said “but in NC State’s case it seems to have been worth the trouble. The program is fantastically successful in terms of student applications and corporate hiring of graduates.”