Melbourne to Tap into Big Data Demand and Other MBA News Snippets

Melbourne Business School hopes to cater to employer demand for business-savvy big data specialists with the launch of new specialized master’s program in business analytics.

The skills gap in big data at management level has already been the inspiration behind an IBM initiative and the question of how business analytics can provide value to firms continues to provoke discussion across the world.

In launching the Master of Business Analytics (MBusA) degree, Melbourne Business School’s dean, Zeger Degraeve, cited an AT Kearney study that estimates the creation of 1600 business analytics jobs over the next two years in Australia alone.

“Big data and advanced analytic systems have brought game-changing shifts to the way information is acquired, analyzed, stored and used. Businesses have told us that they are keen to make use of the competitive advantages that large volumes of complex data can offer,” Degraeve said in a press release for Melbourne Business School.

The full-time one-year MBA program will aim to boost the careers of those with quantitative backgrounds in fields such as engineering, finance and statistics when it gets underway in January 2015.

Teaching will draw from computer science and information systems faculty at the University of Melbourne as well as from Melbourne Business School and, for an insight into the practical applications of business analytics, the program will include a five-week experiential project.