Business analytics is a cross-disciplinary graduation course which is held in high esteem in the corporate sector. As data analytics is crucial for any modern business establishment to succeed today, roles which an analyst takes up have widespread applicability in every field of business. As a result, their immediate and future job opportunities, career prospects, and potential impacts are also just as varied.
Master’s in Business Analytics: Brief Overview of the Course
Education in business analytics incorporates two separate subjects into one unified course:
- The core, functional aspects of business are taught to the students to instil in them a deep-rooted foundation of business knowledge during the first few terms
- For the remaining terms, students concentrate almost entirely on learning predictive and prescriptive business analytics, as well as implementing them in theory
Depending on where a particular student is pursuing the Master’s degree, there will be variations, but this curriculum is followed, for the most part, in a vast majority of business schools.
Who Has the Most to Gain by Pursuing a Master’s Degree in Business Analytics?
Any analytics professional who has had prior education and experience in business analysis, big data analysis, predictive forecasting for financial goal setting, project management roles and/or other similar fields, will find an online MSc in Business Analytics to be of the most importance to them.
After completing their graduation with an MSc in Business Analytics, students will be able to go back to the same industry, but will in most cases join a much higher rung on the corporate ladder than before. Aiming for an internationally accredited and acclaimed course is highly recommended for boosting employability and demand on a global scale.
Is It Feasible for a Working Analyst to Pursue their Master’s While Working?
It’s a valid question and, up until recently, the answer was not very convincing. Working with data and numbers pays well, but it does take a whole lot of time. Fortunately, becoming a student doesn’t necessarily have to come at the expense of losing out on work experience, or the salary for that matter.
Visit aston.ac.uk to find an internationally and locally accredited online MSc in Business Analytics programme at Aston University, which has been flexibly designed for catering to working analytics professionals specifically. Online graduation programmes are actually quite suited for analysts as they get a chance to learn on the job, without quitting the job.
Unfortunately, not every business school on the internet that promises to be authentic, is so. In the absence of the necessary accreditations, the master’s degree won’t hold any significance, so always check them out before even considering them.
What are the Educational Qualifications Necessary to Pursue an MSc in Business Analytics?
In the United Kingdom, an undergrad degree from a recognised institution is the bare minimum that a student will need to qualify for joining a Master’s in Business Analytics programme. Most universities consider the following to be among the relevant fields for the Bachelor’s degree, but it may differ, depending on the university and the nature of the course:
- Mathematics
- Statistics
- Economics
- Physics
- Accounting
- Engineering,
- Data science
- Computer science
- Business education
- Certain statistics-based variants of social science education
In some cases, highly experienced analysts may also be considered, even if they do not have a Bachelor’s degree in one of the listed subjects. Technical education, especially if the student is proficient in programming languages, will be considered with preference in case of such applicants.
What are the Career Options Post Graduation?
Given that this is a professional Master’s degree course that we are discussing, the actual fields should already be known to the applicant, therefore, completing graduation will open up new opportunities in those very same fields.
The Business Analytics MSc programme is a course for boosting one’s career prospects, rather than getting them started on a new career path. One can, however, expect to hold managerial positions in a different sector after graduation, depending on the specialisation they choose.
Specialisation Options
There are primarily four tracks to choose from if you take the MBA route:
- Marketing
- Finance
- Supply chain and operations management
- Information systems
Out of the four, the highest earning professionals are generally found to work in marketing or supply chain and operations management. At the same time, due to the wide applicability and use for business analysis in nearly every sector, employability and pay is above average for data analysts with a relevant MBA or MSc.
MBA Vs. MSc: Is One Better than the Other in Business Analytics?
As they are both Master’s degrees in a highly lucrative field of technical work, the comparison is not even applicable most of the time.
The Difference is in the Detail – An MBA course stresses more on the business aspect, while the MSc programme will further hone the professional skills of a working analyst.
To be conclusive, one would have to say that an MBA in Business Analytics is more about equipping an executive/analyst with a broader range of skills, but someone with an MSc in Business Analytics will be more technical, specialised and detailed in their knowledge.
Lower Pay Vs Higher Tuitions – In spite of there being pros and cons for each, an MBA in analytics will cost a lot more to complete than a MSc. It’s true that those with the former degree are also paid more on average, but it’s subjective nonetheless. Your final choice should depend on the kind of roles you will want to assume further down the line in your career, as well as your own expertise, work history and academic background.
Not that you cannot break out of a technical background and switch to business completely, but taking a decision like that usually will leave you with a very steep learning curve mid-career. Therefore, it’s just a fact that those with a technical and/or academic background will benefit more from a Master’s degree course in business analytics, but a BBA student with an interest in statistics is more likely to find the business management degree in analytics to be more in tune with them.