Master of Science in Management
A Master of Science in Management (abbreviated as MS Management or MSM) is a professional degree with a focus on management.In terms of content, it is similar to the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree as it contains identical management courses but is open to prospective postgraduate candidates at any level in their career unlike MBA programs that have longer course credit requirements and only accept mid-career professionals. In many cases it is synonymous with the Master of Management (MiM) and is also related to the Master of Science in Commerce (MS-Comm or MS-Com).
== Subjects ==
Graduates holding an MSc in Management have commonly studied the following subjects:
Business Ethics
Corporate and Business Strategy
Economics
Engineering management
Entrepreneurship
Finance
Financial Management and managerial accounting
Human Resources Management and Organizational Behavior
Management Information Systems
Management Theory
Marketing or Marketing Management
Operations Management and Supply Chain Management
Protected Area Management
Personal student dissertation (thesis)
In Canada, a highly specialized MSc in Management is also quite common (ex: MSc in Management in Finance and Accounting). These degrees are meant to provide students with a highly specialized set of skills for industry or for further academic study.
== Comparison to MBA ==
As is the case with the MBA degree, as the number of schools granting MSc in Management degrees has grown, so has the diversity of characteristics defining these programs. In most cases, the MSc in Management is an academic degree with no or some requirements for previous job experience, while the MBA is also a professional degree for persons with minimum 2–3 years job experience or 2nd class lower division honorees. However, there are also schools where the MSM degree is granted only to managers with extensive (typically 10 years or more) of work and managerial experience. Whereas MBA programs are open to people from all academic disciplines; about one third of the MSc in Management programs worldwide require a first degree in business or economics.
Some claim the MSc degree is more theory-oriented, and some programs do focus on specific skill set development for managers, while the MBA degree can be more practice-oriented and financially focused.