Shortly after being hailed as one of the world’s best business schools for its program offerings, as well as its inclusivity efforts, the University of Wollongong’s (UOW) Sydney Business School is being taken to new heights.
The University, which recently announced it will be revamping its programs to keep up with the changing demand of the business landscape, has significantly upgraded a degree it is set to offer in 2020 by striking a partnership with US-based software developer firm, SAS Institute.
UOW’s recently-introduced Master of Business Analytics degree has also received accreditation from the SAS Joint Certificate Program in both Business Analytics and Advanced Business Analytics – a first for any business analytics degree in NSW.
The University is also adopting SAS Viya for Learners, an open source product that also relies on cloud technology to improve collaboration.
Responding to high demand
Master of Business Analytics program academic director Dr Joshua Fan said the partnership with SAS is timely as the rapid digitisation of the workforce increases the demand for organisations to leverage technology for smarter decisions,
By exposing students and staff to SAS, the University is aiming to give its future graduates a competitive advantage.
SAS Australia and New Zealand’s head of Academic Outreach, Ian Edwards, said businesses are now seeing the importance of analytics skills to boost productivity as well as to achieve profitable growth.
Other sectors – such as government agencies and healthcare providers – are also making use of analytics to boost their services.
Dr Fan, however, pointed out that there “is currently an acute shortage of skillful business analytics professionals who can interpret and decipher the complex data available to businesses today, in order to inform strategic business decisions.”
“Our Master of Business Analytics has been designed specifically to prepare students with the required skills to become leaders in this environment,” Fan added.
“They will learn to translate insights into effective actions and develop an understanding of business performance to gain a competitive advantage”.
Currently, there are more than 40 higher education institutions in Australia and New Zealand that have already integrated SAS modules in their programs.
UOW expects business analytics to experience a further increase in demand in terms of employments over the next 10 years.