New professional degree – Master of Professional Management

17 July, 2013

New professional degree – Master of Professional Management

Career professionals, seeking a change or wanting to upskill, can now study for a career-specific masters degree at the University of Waikato Management School.

The school is offering year-long Master of Professional Management degrees in Agribusiness, Finance, Public Relations and International Hospitality Management, starting in T-Semester (November) this year.

“These masters degrees are for people who already have a degree in business or commerce or a degree related to their area of interest, but want to get specialist professional knowledge in a specific area,” says Acting Dean Associate Professor John Tressler. “So participants don’t need any prior specialist-subject knowledge.”

He says the degrees are made up of ten high-level papers, taught face-to-face, that follow a natural progression, starting with core knowledge and skills, moving on to advanced professional knowledge and finishing with either an applied research project or internship.

Dr Tressler says he expects the degrees to be popular. “Recently there’s been a lot of publicity about the need for agribusiness professionals and this course will provide an ideal springboard for people interested in management and leadership in agribusiness, value chain innovation and strategy, food systems and policy, and international marketing.”

Finance professor Stuart Locke says people in leadership positions or aspiring to be business leaders really need to understand finance, yet it’s a skill many don’t have. “If you don’t understand finance, you’re basically handling your control to others who do; you side-line yourself,” he says. “So this is a good opportunity for people to upskill.”

The PR masters will cover corporate public relations, investor relations and reputation management and allow students to study PR cases in depth, while the tourism degree will include entrepreneurship in tourism and hospitality, tourist behaviours and markets and running different segments of the market.

“By starting in T-Semester, which is only six weeks long, participants can quickly immerse themselves in their subject and be well into their degree before Christmas,” says Dr Tressler. He says all papers will be taught by senior academics. “We’re responding to a market need. The one-year 180 point masters degrees are popular with domestic and international students.”

ENDS

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