Master of Science in Project Management

The M.S. in Project Management program prepares you for a career as a project management professional, with the skills, expertise, and industry certifications to step into pivotal management roles that are critical in driving change, increasing productivity, and delivering innovation at all types of businesses, organizations, and government entities.

The curriculum is designed to encompass the leading industry standards, so students will develop a comprehensive skill set that combines technical and leadership skills with strategic and business management acumen. MS in Project Management students graduate with globally-recognized certifications from the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Stuart School of Business is a global leader in bridging technology and business, offering distinctive education that provides students with the knowledge and skillsets to become outstanding professionals in management, economics, finance, marketing, business, public administration, operations, and analytics.

Business at Illinois Tech has a prestigious history that dates back to the late 1890s, with some of the nation’s first courses in “Family and Consumer Science” (including “Home Economics” and “Household Management”) being offered by the Lewis Institute, Stuart’s original home, and the Institute’s subsequent formation of the university’s Department of Business and Economics in 1926. Combined with the merger of the Lewis Institute with the Armour Institute, and the earlier pioneering works of Philip D. Armour, a merchant financier, Julia A. Beveridge, a librarian turned public administrator, and Frank W. Gunsaulus, an entrepreneurial preacher in the 1880s, the Department Business and Economics ultimately grew into a separate school at Illinois Institute of Technology – the Stuart School of Business, in 1969, with a gift from Lewis Institute alum and renowned financier Harold Leonard Stuart. Harold L. Stuart himself was a national leader in the field of investment banking in the first half of the 20th century, and his Chicago investment bank played a pivotal role in establishing the city as a global financial hub.

Over a period of more than 125 years, harnessing curricular innovations by Julia A. Beveridge and George N. Carman, and incredible scholarly works by trailblazing Illinois Tech scholars Herb A. Simon (author of Administrative Behavior, later awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics), Karl Menger (developer of the St. Petersburg paradox in economics) and Abe Sklar (developer of the Copula in financial modeling), the Stuart School of Business has refined education in the disciplines of management, economics, finance, business and public administration, marketing, and analytics.

A long-standing leader in curricular innovation, in 1990, building on the foundational works of numerous Illinois Tech scholars, and Harold L. Stuart’s own contributions to finance and the broader business community, the Stuart School of Business established quantitative finance as an academic discipline, with a world’s first postgraduate Master’s program in Financial Markets and Trading – a program that highlighted a new model for embedding into a postgraduate academic program the emphases on career readiness and connectedness with the business community, and transformed business school education.

Today, the Stuart School of Business continues to be a frontier innovator in accredited education, offering academic programs and co-curricular opportunities that place students on the path to self-actualization and career success. Leadership, entrepreneurship, experiential learning, positive societal impact, and connectedness to the business community, combined with a human-centered approach to student development, and an unyielding focus on student success, continue to be core pillars at Stuart. Stuart is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) – an accreditation achieved by fewer than 6% of business schools worldwide.

The Master of Science in Project Management requires the successful completion of 33 credit hours (11 courses). Full-time students are expected to enroll for at least three courses per semester and can complete their degree in two years or less. Part-time students can enroll for as few as one course per semester. The program schedule enables incredible flexibility to students who wish to accelerate their studies. For example, full-time students may be eligible to graduate in 12-16 months by beginning their studies in the summer of year one and completing their program in the summer of year two. 

The Master of Science in Project Management program is designed to prepare professionals to advance their careers in the field of project management (PM). The program emphasizes the crucial role that project management plays in the performance of all organizations, providing students with the knowledge and skills needed to be effective leaders.

In addition to learning core PM principles, students explore the full spectrum of project management concepts and methodologies, learning about business relationship elements, including effective communication, negotiation, organizational culture, and conflict resolution. Essential management processes such as performance, quality, risk, cost, and budget are also examined and applied to real-world projects.

The program encourages immediate application of key concepts to address workplace challenges and opportunities. Students will explore practical topics that are increasingly important to project management, including managing in a global context, ethical and principled leadership, and social responsibility.

Curriculum