Professional Science Master's
PSM Startup Checklist





  • Learn about jobs and labor markets for graduates, including salaries, especially by visiting sites of possible employment.
  • Determine identifiable niche that will generate interest from faculty and students with strong support from business, government, and/or nonprofit sectors.
  • Form advisory board of industry and other likely employers.
  • Meet employer needs for relevant technical and professional skills.
  • Define scholarly rationale for the proposed degree program and its content.
  • The focus area could be interdisciplinary or be a non-traditional focus where there is existing faculty expertise and interest. The degree is named for the focus area, not for the discipline(s) involved.
  • Assure faculty enthusiasm for the new degree, including commitment by regular department faculty to provide bulk of instruction.
  • Win high-level institutional commitment to master's level education, including central coordination of all PSM programs at level of dean or above.
  • Prepare business plan projecting both expenses and revenues, and showing how and when each degree program can become self-sustaining based on tuition revenues, corporate support, and university support.
  • Design a curriculum with a majority of coursework in graduate level science and/or mathematics in one or more disciplines.
  • Develop intense identity-building or "branding" experience for PSM's, including team project for entering students. 
  • Encourage business/industry internships or equivalent.
  • Design exposure to cutting-edge research issues and equipment, for example, by lab rotations.
  • Conduct seminars/colloquia jointly for all PSM students.
  • Teach writing/communication/negotiation/consensus-building and other workplace assets.
  • There should be a reasonable number of existing courses which could be adopted or adapted for the program.
  • Require final project, often team experience, in which meeting a schedule really matters (in contrast to the open-ended nature of much university research).
  • Degree could be completed in approximately two years.
  • Apply to the Council of Graduate Schools for recognition as a Professional Science Master's program.
  • Appoint personnel or hire staff coordinator to handle liaison to business and industry; publicity; recruitment; student services; placement.
  • Win rapid approval of new degree programs by state Regents and other gatekeepers.
  • Create management teams dedicated to recruitment of students and placement of graduates.
  • Set up systems to keep track of graduates and network them.
  • Keep contact with other professional master's programs around the country.
  • Set up systems for assessment and quality control.
SEARCH
 
PSM PROGRAM STATISTICS

PSM Programs: 212
PSM-Affiliated Institutions: 101

as of September 7, 2010
NEWS & UPDATES

The Council of Graduate Schools announces that in addition to over 200 PSM programs, the number of universities offering a PSM program has reached over 100. More Info >

Commentary in the latest issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses the continued growth of the PSM, the benefits in higher education, and sustainability. More Info >

ASBMB Today features the PSM in a new article, discussing how students in the biosciences are obtaining jobs. More Info >

CGS has embarked on a project to develop a widely recognized and sustainable process for recognizing new PSM programs. More Info >

PSM advocates stress the degree’s far-reaching value in a new Science article, including a need for continued program development and stories on how the PSM enhances student’s marketability when searching for employment. More Info >

NSF grants awarded to science master's programs. More Info >

More News Items >
PROGRAM LOCATIONS

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Program Locations.
STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

“I was waiting for something different. I was waiting for something more technical, more scientific that would integrate business courses into a more scientific program." Read More Student Testimonials >

EMPLOYER TESTIMONIALS

"Students in the Professional Master’s Program benefit from ... well-recognized academic resources enhanced with professional components that together foster the development of essential science, communication, and management skills." Read More Employer Testimonials >


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