MBA/MSCS STEM Based Pathway Program with WIL

(Hybrid, a combination of Campus and Online Courses)

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) / Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS) Pathway Program fuses core business administration fundamentals with core computer science fundamentals that support a detailed study in Data Science and Analytics with a strong focus in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to optimize the precision and speed of data and information acquisition. The program facilitates a comprehensive approach to business analytics through a solid foundation in computational data science to achieve descripting and predictive data models and solutions to facilitate sound business decisions and strategy formulation in a science, technology, engineering, and management (STEM) global environment context. It also focuses on the transpersonal aspect of leadership and human interaction and integrates these concepts throughout the program.

MBA Program Overview

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree program provides students with thorough and well-integrated instruction in business fundamentals and analytic centric decision making. It focuses on the development of deep self-knowledge and emotional intelligence that benefit managers across a range of science, technology, engineering, and business contexts. The program is designed to provide graduates with the knowledge, skills, and transpersonal perspective necessary to foster an organizational culture of value driven, analytics-based decision making in a competitive global strategic environment.

The MBA program balances traditional business disciplines while focusing on the human dimensions of leadership and management coupled with the strategic use of data science and analytics to ensure a complete transformative transpersonal vision of the organization. Core courses provide foundational knowledge of personality and motivation, operations, strategy, law, ethics, and leadership, to guide strategic actions leading to the enhancement of organizational performance and global sustainability.

Throughout the MBA program students apply, align, and balance three human strengths in organizational decision-making: rationality and logic (head); emotional intelligence (heart); and deep intuition (soul). Students apply these principles to real world science, technology, engineering, and management domains to develop innovative, ethical, and business oriented solutions that positively impact the organization, its operational environment, and humanity.

The analytics focus of the program enables students to develop precise snapshots of the organization and its performance in the global environment to ensure that sound, viable, and innovative solutions are developed and strategically implemented. Overall, the program strives to balance business centric principles with sound transpersonal ideals to prepare students to become transformative, innovative leaders in today’s complex global  based business environment.

The MBA program has a complete Work Integrated Learning (WIL) component which allows all students to participate in the Sofia Internship program which directly maps to the MBA curricula. The Internship program allows students to directly apply their learning in an organizational/corporate setting while being mentored directly by an experienced faculty member. Within the internship program, students will learn business skills and apply them while developing lessons learned documents, work application summaries, and academic products that reflect on their internship. Students will also interact weekly with other MBA internship students to share experiences and provide peer guidance and advice.

The internship supervisor at the internship organization will also be involved in the student’s learning process through comprehensive feedback to assist the student that will be communicated to the faculty mentor. Overall, the Work Integrated Learning component of the MBA program will provide students valuable real time business experience that will assist them in learning core business topics on the job and provide a platform to help them reflect on their experiences with complete support by MBA faculty and student peers.

MSCS Program Overview

The Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS) STEM Program at Sofia University is a rigorous and comprehensive graduate program that provides a sound foundation in core computer science principles as well as in cutting edge computer science specializations. It provides thorough coverage of the theory of computer science while providing relevant, practical, and applicable knowledge in a broad range of applied and advanced topics.

The program focuses on innovative, transpersonal, and transformative learning to ensure that students are well prepared for the technical and managerial challenges of the rapidly evolving computing, engineering and scientific industries as well as the challenges of future academic and research-based endeavors.  

The MSCS STEM program includes a science, technology, engineering, and management focus (STEM). This facilitates a well-rounded industry centric approach to computer science to ensure that students are prepared to face the global challenges of the current technological environment. The program integrates solid foundations in the managerial, engineering, and scientific aspects of computer science, such as software, systems, and computer engineering, risk and safety management, software product management, as well as the core scientific, technological, and mathematical aspects of computer science and its integration with business, scientific, and engineering information systems as well as science, engineering, and business analytics programs.

The MSCS STEM program has a complete Work Integrated Learning (WIL) component which allows all students to participate in the Sofia Internship program which directly maps to the MSCS curricula. The Internship program allows students to directly apply their learning in a highly technical environment while being mentored directly by an experienced faculty member. Within the internship program, students will learn technology skills and apply them to their MSCS program while developing lessons learned documents, work application summaries, and technical products that reflect on their internship. Students will also interact weekly with other MSCS STEM internship students to share experiences and provide peer guidance and advice.

The internship supervisor at the internship organization will also be involved in the student’s learning process through comprehensive feedback to assist the student that will be communicated to the faculty mentor. Overall, the Work Integrated Learning component of the MSCS STEM program will provide students valuable real time business experience that will assist them in learning core computer science topics on the job and provide a platform to help them reflect on their experiences with complete support by MSCS faculty and student peers.

Work Integrated Learning Integration

The Pathway Program has a complete Work Integrated Learning (WIL)¹ component which allows all students to participate in the Sofia Internship program which directly maps to the Pathway Program curricula. The Internship program allows students to directly apply their learning in an organizational/corporate/technical setting while being mentored directly by experienced faculty member from both the MBA and MSCS programs. Within the internship program, students will learn both computer science and business skills and apply them while developing lessons learned documents, work application summaries, and academic products that reflect on their internship.

Students will also interact weekly with other internship students to share experiences and provide peer guidance and advice. The internship supervisor at the internship organization will also be involved in the student’s learning process through comprehensive feedback to assist the student that will be communicated to the faculty mentor. Overall, the Work Integrated Learning component of the Pathway Program will provide students valuable real time business experience that will assist them in learning core business and computer science topics on the job and provide a platform to help them reflect on their experiences with complete support by MBA and MSCS faculty and student peers.

¹The Work Integrated Learning pedagogical model utilized in the Sofia University Pathway Program is based on a systematic and comprehensive study of the WIL models utilized in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. This includes a comprehensive quality assurance and evaluative framework that will be utilized by the Pathway Program to assess the effectiveness of the WIL program in future program evaluations and program updates.

STEM Integration and Focus

The Pathway Program includes a science, technology, engineering, and management focus (STEM)² This facilitates a well-rounded industry centric approach to business administration and computer science to ensure that students are prepared to face the global challenges of the current business and technological environment. The program integrates solid foundations in business and computer science including strategy, ethics, law, human motivation, decision science and marketing among other managerial disciplines coupled with a focus on the STEM domains to ensure that students have a holistic understanding of the techno-centric global business and technology environment.

²Department of Homeland Security Designated Degree STEM Title: Management Science and Quantitative Methods. DHS CIP Series and Code 2.1399.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) STEM Designated Degree Program List is a complete list of fields of study that DHS considers to be science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields of study for purposes of the 24-month STEM optional practical training extension described at 8 CFR 214.2(f).

Under 8 CFR 214.2(f)(10)(ii)(C)(2), a STEM field of study is one “included in the Department of Education’s Classification of Instructional Programs taxonomy within the two-digit series containing engineering, biological sciences, mathematics, and physical sciences, or a related field. In general, related fields will include fields involving research, innovation, or development of new technologies using engineering, mathematics, computer science, or natural sciences (including physical, biological, and agricultural sciences).”

See the following web site for a complete list of the 2020 DHS CIP STEM Codes and information about the CIP Code system: https://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/stem-list.pdf

Pathway Program Overview

The Master of Business Administration (MBA) / Master of Science in Computer Science (MSCS) Pathway Program fuses core business administration fundamentals with core computer science fundamentals that support a detailed study in Data Science and Analytics with a strong focus in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to optimize the precision and speed of data and information acquisition. The program facilitates a comprehensive approach to business analytics through a solid foundation in computational data science to achieve descripting and predictive data models and solutions to facilitate sound business decisions and strategy formulation in a science, technology, engineering, and management (STEM) global environment context. It also focuses on the transpersonal aspect of leadership and human interaction and integrates these concepts throughout the program.

The MBA portion of the program fuses core business topics and analytics both of data and strategic information to ensure that business leaders fully comprehend the strategic, operational, and tactical direction of the company. Data is the lifeblood of every organization, and understanding the data from an analytical, visual, and statistical vantage point is vital to every business leader.

The MSCS data science and artificial intelligence portion of the program enables students to more precisely model and visualize data and information for strategic prediction and description of both business processes and core business domain functionality in science, technology, and engineering disciplines. Additionally, the MSCS core courses infuse information assurance, information systems, software engineering, and vital computational processes into the program to provide a well-rounded computational approach to business administration.

Since nearly every business organization utilizes information technology, this joint program will also enable students to be informed business leaders who can manage the complex information systems of the modern business including aspects of cyber security, software development, networking, and computer systems management.  They will be well equipped to adapt to changes in global computing technology to ensure a viable organizational future and sound cyber foundation into the 21st century.

How the Pathway Program Works

Students will begin their initial degree program, either MBA or MSCS. Once they reach a threshold point in their program, the completion of 24 credits, they may elect to apply for the Pathway Program. The Pathway depends upon whether the student starts in the MBA program or the MSCS program.

Initial Start: MBA Program

If the student starts in the MBA program, they may submit their application to the Pathway Program after they complete 24 credits of MBA courses. If accepted into the Pathway Program, they will continue on to complete a total of 30 MBA credits. Once the 30 MBA credits are complete, they will begin MSCS classes.

The student will complete 36 MSCS credits, including the MSCS Capstone, and will graduate with the MBA and the MSCS degrees, with a total of 66 graduate credits.

If the student enrolls in the Pathway Program and does not complete the MSCS program, they can apply 6 credits of the MSCS program to the MBA program and finish the MBA degree.

Alternatively, the MBA student may elect to take one of the MSCS Graduate Certificates instead of the full MSCS Program. If this is the case, the student will complete 30 MBA credits, then complete all six of the MSCS courses for the specific certificate, and then graduate with the MBA and an MSCS Graduate Certificate in a specific concentration, with a total of 48 graduate credits.

• Note #1: If the student elects to be in the WIL program, 3 credits from the MBA program can be WIL Internship credits.
• Note #2: The student can apply any MBA credits to the Pathway Program

Initial Start: MSCS Program

If the student starts in the MSCS program, they may submit their application to the Pathway Program after they complete 24 credits of MSCS courses. They will then continue on to complete 36 credits of the MSCS program, including the MSCS Capstone. Once the 36 MSCS credits are complete, they will begin MBA classes.

The student will complete 30 MBA credits and will graduate with the MBA and the MSCS degrees, with a total of 66 graduate credits.

If the student enrolls in the Pathway Program and does not complete the MBA program, they can apply 6 credits of the MBA program to the MSCS program and finish the MSCS degree.

• Note #1: If the student elects to be in the WIL program, 3 credits from the MSCS program can be WIL Internship credits.
• Note #2: The student can apply any MSCS credits to the Pathway Program but must complete the MSCS Capstone.

Pathway Program Enrollment

The student must follow the below steps to be accepted in and begin the Pathway Program.

1. Student contacts their respective Program Chair of their intent to enroll in the Pathway Program upon completion of 24 credits in their current program.
2. The Program Chair will assess the student’s performance, and if acceptable, they will be given a Pathway Program enrollment application which includes a 300 to 500 word required statement of purpose.
3. Upon agreement by both Program Chairs after reviewing the application, the student is officially enrolled in the Pathway Program by the Registrar.
4. The student is notified of their acceptance and upon completion of their required current program courses (30 credits MBA or 36 credits MSCS) they will begin their new program.
5. All F-1 students must coordinate with the DSO to extend their time at Sofia, per F-1 policy.