While MBA schools look to blend technology into their business curricula, a parallel set of master’s degree programs aims to bring business skills to technology managers. At Northeastern University, in Boston, the High Technology MBA program works closely with area companies to enroll IT workers, who continue on the job while pursuing their degrees. “We are focused on mid-level technology managers, typically from 27 to 40 years old, drawn from the core industries in New England,” says Director Marc Meyer. “We don’t just use case studies, we focus on issues from within their own companies.”
At American University’s Kogod School of Business, in Washington, D.C., Jill Klein—herself a former CIO—runs a program that offers a Master of Science in Information Technology Management degree. “This is for people who are already working in IT, but who want to move more into management after being pigeonholed as, say, a database specialist. We blend IT with traditional business disciplines.” The idea, Klein says, is to create business leaders from the tech side of the business. “Some of the next generation of CIOs have to come from within IT.”