Gartner ranks NC State Jenkins program number 15 in Supply Chain

By Christine Ferrell

Gartner released last week the Top U.S. Supply Chain Graduate University Programs for 2014 and among the participating institutions, NC State’s Jenkins graduate supply chain programs ranked number 15. NC State offers a supply chain concentration in the Jenkins MBA program and partners with the Poole College of Management’s Supply Chain Resource Cooperative (SCRC) to offer experiential supply chain management education to all graduate management students.

NC State was noted as one of the biggest forward movers in the ranking, advancing seven places since the ranking was last published.

Leading the ranking was Penn State, followed by Michigan State and the University of Tennessee. NC State was the only North Carolina-based program listed in the top 25.

Gartner’s rankings are based mainly on two factors: Gartner’s own evaluation of the curriculum and the success of graduates in the job market, measured by employer surveys and salaries.

Supply Chain Professor and SCRC Executive Director Robert Handfield shared his excitement over the ranking in a recent blog post, “This is great news, considering that NC State’s business program is only 20 years old, and its supply chain program even younger. I am very proud of our faculty and course instructors for the incredible job they have done.”

Handfield also noted several key trends among top-ranked programs in the Gartner report:

• Universities are broadening their supply chain curricula to reflect the reality of today’s supply chain organizations. NC State engages top corporate partners to develop projects across a wide variety of different areas, including market intelligence, logistics, inventory, value stream mapping, cost management, supply management, transportation, performance metrics, and others.
• Students are increasingly participating in applied project work—through internships and co-ops—often for sponsoring companies — on-site and in the classroom. During the 2013-2014 academic year, the NJC State SCRC deployed 56 graduate and undergraduate practicum teams working with business and industry partners.
• Supply chain management programs are growing in number and enrollment. NC State has realized an increasing number of top-quality students enrolling in MBA and undergraduate management programs.
• Supply chain management graduates from high-quality programs are landing job offers with higher salaries than many of their peers focused on other management functions. Among May 2014 graduates of the NC State Jenkins Full-time MBA program, 40 percent earned supply chain management concentrations, and supply chain full-time salaries were among the highest.

The Gartner ranking comes on the heels of the organization’s 2014 ranking of top U.S. undergraduate supply chain management programs, in which NC State’s Poole College of Management undergraduate program placed number 24.

Additional information about the Garner ranking can be found in the full report.

Additional information about the NC State Jenkins MBA program is available on the MBA website and the NC State SCRC website.