The Broad College of Business at Michigan State University is known as a powerhouse for its best-in-class supply chain management programs. For a milestone fifth consecutive year, Broad’s MBA programs have held the No. 1 rank in the supply chain/logistics specialty in U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 Best Business Schools ranking, released today.
“The rankings of our programs are essential for MSU’s Broad College to be a top-of-mind school for supply chain management,” Vedat Verter, McConnell Endowed Chair of Business Administration and chairperson of the Department of Supply Chain Management, said. “They elevate our ability to attract the top students, whom we can place at the best companies upon graduation.”
Spartans dominate the No. 1 spot for undergraduate programs as well, reaching 10 consecutive years at the top with U.S. News’s 2021 ranking.
Beyond MSU’s status as a programmatic frontrunner, the department’s world-renowned faculty are exceptional leaders in research productivity. Since 2010, Broad has been ranked No. 1 for research output in empirically focused journals according to the SCM Journal List.
The Department of Supply Chain Management at MSU has a strong history of setting trends and paving the way for the integration of the three pillars of supply chain: sourcing, operations and logistics. This approach was a fundamentally different way of looking at supply chain management, helping to carve out the discipline that we know today and putting Spartans on the map early on.
“The department is in a continuous improvement mode. We are currently expanding the scope of our curriculum by intensifying the coverage of recent issues including DEI, sustainability and green procurement,” Verter said. “We are also increasingly providing training in supply chain analytics so as to better prepare students for the workforce.”
In addition, MSU supply chain faculty have always synchronized with industry to ensure that their academic work has a real-world impact. And today’s research explores deeply diverse industries — everything from factory worker inclusion to global disruption of wildlife trafficking to managing hospital operating room waste. In response to current challenges faced by COVID-19, faculty have lent their expertise to help CEOs respond rapidly and urge leaders to embrace resiliency in their supply chain models.
“The COVID pandemic laid bare the tremendous importance of balancing supply chain risks against a singular focus on realizing the most cost-efficient supply chains,” Eli and Edythe L. Broad Dean Sanjay Gupta said. “Moreover, the pandemic highlighted the disproportionate effects of breakdowns in supply chains on minoritized communities and other vulnerable segments of our population.
“Our Broad College supply chain faculty have long been at the forefront in researching these tradeoffs and emphasizing the need to build resiliency and redundancy in supply chains. Such thought leadership has real-world implications, and I am truly proud of my colleagues for providing that perspective, especially in this time of need.”
Beyond the college’s strides in supply chain management, the Broad Full-Time MBA program maintained its place in the top 20 programs for the 10th consecutive year, hitting three years at No. 17 among public universities and moving up to No. 39 overall in this year’s rankings.
“Nothing makes us more proud than to have our Broad MBA program compete favorably with the very best business schools in the country and be included in the top echelons of such programs,” Gupta said. “The MBA remains the most highly coveted business credential, and a top ranking favorably impacts the entire Broad College and all of our programs.
“This ranking also validates our strong emphasis on ‘learning and leading by doing’ in the program, which prepares Broad graduates to make an impact in their organizations and communities from day one.”
For more details on the 2022 Best Graduate Programs rankings, visit usnews.com.