NJIT Is Mad for Graduate Studies, With More Than 100 Academic Programs and Counting: Part 1

They represent a sizable segment of NJIT’s student population — about a quarter — and come from around the country and the world to attend the university and acquire advanced skills to secure successful professional careers. Indeed, graduate students are pursuing degrees in a range of academic disciplines through a variety of instructional formats, from traditional classroom or face-to-face learning, to online and hybrid (combines online and face-to-face) learning. Also, many of NJIT’s undergraduate students are enrolled in accelerated programs to take advantage of course double-counting that allows them to, in addition to an undergraduate degree, get a graduate degree faster and at a lower cost.

Graduate studies at NJIT began in 1949 when Newark College of Engineering (NCE) awarded its first Master of Science degrees. Later, in 1964, student Edwin Otto Eisen earned NCE’s first doctoral degree, in chemical engineering; his dissertation was titled, “Salt Effects in Liquid-Liquid Equilibria.”

Today, through five of the university’s academic colleges and schools, students can choose from an array of graduate programs: 50+ master’s (including 15 fully online), 19 doctoral and 40 certificates. These figures and the various programs themselves are improving all the time, noted Sotirios G. Ziavras, vice provost for graduate studies, dean of the graduate faculty and professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Here, in the first of a two-part series, he discusses how NJIT continually enhances its graduate offerings to attract certificate, master’s and Ph.D. students, and where these students are finding success after receiving their advanced degrees.

The following interview has been edited for clarity.

What distinguishes NJIT’s graduate programs?

There has been an upward trend for NJIT in terms of the availability, quality and uniqueness of graduate programs that appeal to applicants. For example, recently introduced innovative programs include the master’s in data science, the certificate in cell and gene therapy sciences and the Ph.D. in business data science that focuses on STEM problem-solving in the business world. It is significant that many people with impressive educational and professional backgrounds and who are employed full time are interested in enrolling as part-time students in this Ph.D. program.

What is important to point out here is that, for part-time doctoral students working in industry who meet certain criteria, NJIT makes available the “collaborative doctorate” option in all of its Ph.D. programs. After passing the first Ph.D. program milestone, which is a set of required courses, and the second milestone, which is the qualifying exam, that person can start working on dissertation research dealing with a topic that may be of interest to their employer while being advised by an NJIT faculty member having relevant expertise. If there is a need, an IP (Intellectual Property) agreement can be signed between NJIT and the student’s employer, who sometimes pays for the student’s doctoral studies.

There has been an upward trend for NJIT in terms of the availability, quality and uniqueness of graduate programs that appeal to applicants.

Is NJIT always looking at the graduate studies landscape to see what’s needed or no longer needed?

Yes. NJIT assesses its academic programs on a regular basis. Also, changes are often initiated by the academic departments and the colleges themselves. At the level of graduate certificates, where new programs get introduced quite often due to expedited approval processes and a smaller number of required courses, NJIT is often ahead of the curve in launching state-of-the-art programs. Market research analysis focusing on job opportunities around the nation and in our metropolitan area, as well as the availability of NJIT faculty who are experts in their respective academic disciplines, drive the introduction of graduate programs.

It is well-known that our master’s programs enroll students with good credentials. The same goes with certificate students who may intend to just acquire the certificate credential to advance their career in the immediate future, or first receive the certificate and subsequently pursue a relevant master’s degree, since all certificate courses are normally part of a master’s program curriculum in the same discipline.

Innovative certificate programs also have the potential to attract very accomplished individuals. For example, someone may have a great background in computer science due to having received a doctorate in this field 15 years ago, and her company may be moving in the direction of big data processing that requires a solid background in computer science and more. Big data as an academic discipline is very popular nowadays but was not really around 15 years ago.

Of course, it’s one thing to learn something new on her own in the area of big data processing with her prior computer science background, but it would be much more effective to learn it in the classroom setting or online with the supervision of actual course instructors. Since her computer science background is strong, she may want to just pursue a certificate with a few courses that focus exclusively on the theory, techniques and applications for big data processing.

Market research analysis focusing on job opportunities around the nation and in our metropolitan area, as well as the availability of NJIT faculty who are experts in their respective academic disciplines, drive the introduction of graduate programs.

Where have NJIT’s master’s and Ph.D. students landed after studying here?

Students with master’s degrees from NJIT get very competitive jobs. For example, in the computing field they work for such behemoths as Microsoft, Qualcomm, Apple, Google and Amazon. Other examples include pharmaceutical companies in New Jersey with multinational presence, big construction companies working on projects all over the world, and much more. One of these construction companies provides internships and fellowship funding to master’s students who quite often are hired by this company after graduation.

In fact, many students take advantage of opportunities to also learn from the business world while they are still in graduate school. This is done through curricular practical training (CPT) and NJIT is well-known in some places overseas for the CPT opportunities it provides to graduate students.

Finally, several Ph.D. graduates are hired as assistant professors by universities across the nation or overseas, while others continue their research endeavors as postdocs in top universities and national laboratories, or become employees in very respectable industries.

Look for Part 2, coming soon!