Graduate Programs

Project Management Certification Training for Veterans Approved

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Project Managemennt Certificate for VeteransStamford, Conn. – The Connecticut Office of Higher Education / State Approving Agency has approved project management certification training for veterans and other eligible U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs beneficiaries at UConn’s Stamford campus, effective immediately.

University of Connecticut’s School of Business and their component for non-credit programs, Connecticut Information Technology Institute (CITI), have been authorized to provide project management certification training under the provisions of Title 38 Section 3675, United States Code of Federal Regulation for Veterans program.

The Project Management Institute (PMI)® has designated CITI as a “Global Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.)” This signifies that CITI has met PMI’s rigorous standards of quality curriculum and instruction for project management training.

CITI’s project management curriculum includes certification training programs for project practitioners of all education and skill levels. The Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® is a good entry-level certification for those who are new to project management. The Project Management Professional (PMP)® is the most important globally-recognized and independently validated credential for experienced project managers.

Course offerings related to these and other credentials are offered at CITI on a monthly basis. Research studies have proven that project management certifications can positively impact project manager salaries, and help them stand out to prospective employers in the marketplace.

All of CITI’s Project Management Courses are approved for Professional Development Units, as well Education Development Units.

For more information, go to www.citi.uconn.edu or call (203) 251-9516.

Domestic Students Now Allowed Part-Time Option

Posted on by Brian Kelleher

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Important Change for Domestic Students

(Effective Immediately)

The MsFRM program now allows domestic students both full-time and part-time options.  The course sequence under the full time option is as follows:

Full-Time Option

  • Fall I – 2 courses                                                                   
  • Spring I – 3 courses
  • Summer I – 3 courses
  • Fall II – take 3 courses

Total – 11 courses (33 credits)

Graduation in the December of following year.

All course are lock-step and must be taken in sequence

Part-Time Option

 Under the part-time option, students are allowed the maximum possible flexibility to take as many or few courses as they wish every semester.  However, courses are still lock-step and part-time students must wait until the course is offered again next academic year.

A suggested sequence of courses for part-time students is as follows:

  •  Fall I – 2 courses                                                                   
  • Spring I – any 2 courses (should take Fin Modeling II)
  • Summer I – any 2 courses (should take Fin Modeling III)
  • Fall II – 3 courses
  • Spring II – 1 remaining course from Spring I
  • Summer II – 1 remaining course from Summer I

Total – 11 courses (33 credits)

Graduation in the May of second year.

All course are lock-step and must be taken in sequence

Under the above Part Time scheme, part-time students will graduate in May of second year.

However, the program allows the students the maximum possible flexibility to choose as many or few courses as the part-time student wishes, subject to the following caveats:

  1. Domestic students will be allowed to take as many (not exceeding 3) or as few (including not taking any course) courses they choose during each semester.
  2. All domestic students are strongly advised to take at least one course each semester.
  3. All domestic students are strongly advised to take the Financial Modeling course sequence before they take the Financial Risk Management sequence, to the extent possible.
  4. Domestic students must finish the experiential learning project with the group to which he/she is assigned.
  5. All domestic students are strongly advised to finish the program within 2 years.
  6. All domestic students must finish the program (33 credits for the 15 month, 42 credits for the 20-month program) within 3 years from starting the program.

***Important – Students need to take a certain number of credits to be eligible for financial aid and to not have to repay loans.  Students should be careful about their funding availability if they choose to take less credits per semester.  Students are responsible to check with Financial Aid Office regarding this issue.

The part-time option is available to all domestic students with immediate effect, meaning current domestic students can take advantage of this change from this summer.  Please also note that the current students choosing the part-time option will have to wait until next year when the same courses will be offered again, unless the course sequence is changed in which case they will be informed immediately.

Business Briefs (Spring 2014)

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This article first appeared in the UConn Business magazine, Volume 4, Issue 2 (Spring 2014)

Faculty & Staff

Sudip Bhattacharjee, associate professor of OPIM, was invited to serve as a member of the 2014 Selects Committee for the premiere INFORMS Conference on Business Analytics and Operations Research held March 30.

Assistant Professor Paul Borochin and Professor Joseph Golec, both of the finance department, presented “Using Options to Measure the Full Value-Effect of an Event: Application to the Healthcare Reform Act” to the University community on February 7. Continue Reading

EMBA Class of 2014 Graduation

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EMBA 2014 GraduationOn the morning of Saturday, April 12, faculty, family and friends gathered at the Society Room in Hartford, Connecticut to celebrate the graduation of UConn’s Executive MBA (EMBA) Class of 2014.

Joe Connolly ’06 EMBA delivered the keynote address, “The Riddle of Leadership.” After briefly reflecting on his time in the Executive MBA program, Connolly advised the newly minted EMBAs that their journey toward successful leadership has really just begun. After acknowledging the importance of being equipped with the tools and technical skills of an MBA, he also emphasized the role of intangible skills and strong self-awareness.

“Effective leaders get identified because they get things done. They don’t make excuses. If they make a mistake, they fix it and move on. Leaders have a bit of a thick skin. They can take criticism. Leaders can connect with people. They can manage up and down. They communicate well,” he said.

Connolly shared that to learn and grow as leaders is a personal journey; that leadership is “not about you, but all about you at the same time.” He encouraged the students to explore their own beliefs, thoughts, and motivations, saying “…By learning to master and lead yourself you will be far better equipped to become the great leaders I know you all aspire to be.”

Congratulations to the EMBA Class of 2014: James Borzelli, Kevin Charles Brinson, John Cappelli, Russell Melvin Carson, Michael Eugene Casey, Michael John Chase, Jessica Beth Ficarra, Tara Ann Gerber, Stephen T. Haeckel, Allison Joel Hannah, Lisa Jacobi, Gregory J. Lancaster, Perry Chris Leros, Patrick Joseph Packard, Chris Perone, Ritesh Ashwath Rao, Alvaro Santos, Timothy Michael Sasur, and Caroline Elizabeth Ward.

Making Sure Global Brigades Does Well, So It Can Continue to Do Good

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UConn MBAs Provide Operational Guidance to the World’s Largest Student-Led Social Responsibility Movement.

When you’re the world’s largest global health and sustainable development organization empowered by student volunteers, challenges arise. Fortunately, the UConn MBA program excels at approaching these types of challenges as opportunities for experiential learning, business process improvement, and making a positive impact.

The UConn MBA Case Challenge gives students the opportunity to strengthen their strategic decision-making skills as managers, understand and reflect the interplay between organizations and their environment in the formulation and implementation of strategies, and learn how an organization integrates strategic management with its operational functions.

For 2014, the Case Challenge focus was on non-governmental organizations (NGO’s). Invariably excluded from the mainstream world of corporate diaspora, NGOs are increasingly playing a vital role in providing support to communities which otherwise remain neglected and unable to sustain themselves due to the lack of access to basic necessities to engage in business or care.

Global Brigades has mobilized almost 30,000 graduate, undergraduate students and professionals through nine skill-based programs that work in partnership with community members to improve quality of life in under-resourced regions of Africa and Central America. The task for UConn MBA teams was to think through some of the implications of the complexity Global Brigades endures in its operational space and to review the following:

  • Recommendations on improving the Global Brigades model in a framework of their mission, considering both financial and humanitarian objectives.
  • Recommendations on strategic management of Global Brigades and potential growth and expansion tactics.

 

The winning team, Jaimin Bhatt ’15 MBA, Xiaoying Gan ’15 MBA, Ashish Kumar ’15 MBA, and Carlo Rivieccio ’15 MBA, presented Global Brigades with recommendations for segmenting its services into three distinct categories based on its core competencies, creating a stronger value proposition for donors, and diversifying income and investments.

“Our client representatives [Tanya Svidler, director of impact investing for Global Brigades, and Cole Hoover, director of the Global Brigades Institute] were very impressed with the quality of students’ presentations and recommendations,” said Rajendra Shirolé, MBA program director.

The Case Challenge is a program requirement for UConn MBAs. “In this exercise we were able to bring together all our newly learned academic knowledge and combine it with our practical experiences in order to deliver valuable recommendations to Global Brigades. I hope that we can continue to participate in such experiential activities as they solidify class learning,” said Kumar.

Bhatt added, “This was really a very exceptional experience.”

MSFRM 3rd Annual Risk Management Conference, “The many faces of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)”, March 20, 2015

Posted on by Brian Kelleher

Save the date:

The MSFRM Program will be hosting its 3rd Annual Risk Management Conference on March 20, 2015 entitled “of “The many faces of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM)”.  More details will be posted to the MSFRM website as soon as they are available.

MSFRM Students Take 3rd Place in Prestigious Rotman Trading Competition

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Marking its first time participating in the Rotman International Trading Competition (RITC)–a very prominent, well-established global competition–the UConn team captured third place in the Quantitative Outcry Case.

Making up UConn’s team were MSFRM students Brian Asselin, Chad Belanger, Matt Dyer, and Tejas Patel. Continue Reading

FRM Introduces New 5th Semester Option

Posted on by Brian Kelleher

We are excited to offer a new full semester of three 3-credit courses for the incoming and current cohort. This semester will include two courses on advanced and quantitative applications in Financial Modelling and Financial Engineering and a comprehensive course on Enterprise Risk management (ERM).  This change will extend our 15 month program to 19 months.  The students choosing this option will graduate in May rather than in December.

Additional 5th Semester
Spring (2)

  • Programming and Modelling for Financial Analysis: This course focuses on the use of VBA in EXCEL, MATLAB, and SAS for financial modeling. With VBA, tudents will learn advanced materials such as Excel object programming, Database operations, file operations, graphical user interface design, bject-oriented programming, add-in, reports, and automation as well. Students will learn modeling techniques such as regression analysis, Monte-Carlo simulation, binomial trees, optimization, linear and non-linear programming, and data envelopment analysis and apply these in financial contexts such as portfolio optimization, credit risk, option pricing, capital budgeting, etc.
  • Advanced Analytical Applications in Risk Management:  This course will use datasets and software including Bloomberg, Matlab, EViews, Risk Metrics and others to train students in advanced applications of Risk Management models.
  • Seminar on Enterprise Risk Management (ERM):  This seminar course will introduce students to the current status of ERM.  Various risks faced by multinationals including Operational Risk, Geopolitical Risk, Supply Chain Risk, Cyber Risk.  The course will include the role of communication and ethical considerations in RM. 

MSFRM Receives STEM Designation

Posted on by Brian Kelleher

The State of Connecticut’s Office of Higher Education recently granted STEM designation for UConn’s MS degree in Financial Risk Management (MSFRM). Under the new STEM classification, MSFRM international students can now qualify for a 17-month OPT (Optional Practical Training) Extension making it a full 29 months of OPT.

MSFRM joins MS in Business Analytics & Project Management as the only two programs in the School of Business to receive STEM designation.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields are essential to U.S. economic competitiveness and growth. Over the last several decades the country has experienced a significant shortage of qualified workers for employment in STEM fields. Increasingly, businesses have to hire international workers to meet their needs. Therefore, STEM designated educational programs make it possible for international graduates to remain stateside longer to not only establish their careers but also to help meet the demand for STEM-educated professionals.

UConn’s STEM designated programs, and their related initiatives, also play an important role in Next Generation CT, state legislation passed into law and signed by the governor, that will invest over $1.5 billion dollars in UConn over the next 10 years.

“Recruiting the best and brightest international students to our program and then enabling them to successfully begin their professional careers is an important part of our educational mission,” said Professor Chinmoy Ghosh, head of the Finance Department and director of the MSFRM program. “Furthermore, providing a sufficient and qualified pipeline of talent for the nation’s economy is core to our service mission as a public institution.”

Under the traditional OPT program, international students who graduate from colleges and universities in the U.S. are able to remain in the country and receive training through work experience for up to 12 months. Students who graduate from a designated STEM degree program can remain for an additional 17 months on an OPT STEM Extension.

“Undeniably, international students bring valuable contributions to our programs and classrooms,” adds Jud Saviskas, executive director of the School of Business in Stamford. “STEM designation now allows these highly skilled foreign graduates to extend their post-graduate training, establish their careers, and enhance the U.S. economy.”