When asked about the ranking, Brian Fugate, department chair of the Department of Supply Chain Management at the University of Arkansas stated, “It’s an honor to earn such outstanding recognition.” He went on to say, “Northwest Arkansas has become a hot-spot for the industry with all the great supply chain companies located nearby. It’s important that we do our part to add to that excellence.”
Gartner, the global research and advisory firm ranked each university in five categories - program scope; industry value; industry size; global content; and diversity and inclusion before making their final decision. The organization released their rankings in a webinar hosted by Gartner analysts Dana Stiffler and Carolyn Chumakov on June 24, 2020.
The rest of the universities ranked in Gartner’s Top 10 undergraduate programs for supply chain include the University of Texas at Austin, University of South Carolina, University of Tennessee, Auburn University, Northeastern University, Michigan State University and Georgia Tech. While narrowly missing the Top 10, Howard University was ranked #13 after not making the list in 2018.
During the webinar Stiffler and Chumakov didn’t just recite the top 25 universities but shared insight on the diversity of the field, salary expectations, and what universities can do to make their programs more desirable. Among their findings – students who attend Gartner’s Top 10 undergraduate program can earn an average of five thousand dollars more per year than their counterparts. Those who graduated from one of Gartner’s Top 10 ranked Graduate supply chain programs earned up to nine thousand more than their counterparts. The analysts’ records show that the supply chain industry is getting more diverse. They found that 24% of professors were female, while 30% were minorities.
The Top 10 Graduate Programs that Gartner listed as having the best supply chain academic program below Pennsylvania State includes University of Tennessee, Georgia Institute of Technology, Michigan State University, University of Texas, Austin, University of Michigan, Arizona State University, University of Minnesota, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and North Carolina State University. Like Howard University in the undergraduate rankings, Purdue University ranked at number 12 for the Graduate program after being left off in 2018. Stiffler and Chumakov recommended that graduate programs looking to attract students should redesign their internships and highlight their role in pandemic response.