Graduate Programs

As the field of accounting grows increasingly dynamic and educational requirements for taking the CPA exam increase, many students seek an advanced accounting degree. The 36-credit-hour MPA program strives to develop accounting professionals for the workplace they will enter now and in the future, as well as qualifying candidates to sit for the CPA exam. We do this by providing further technical education combined with a focus on communication and critical thinking.

Open to students from various backgrounds, this program requires previous coursework in accounting. As an undergraduate accounting student, you may enter the master’s program while in the final year of your undergraduate studies as long as you maintain good academic standing with the university and complete the required courses. As an MPA student, you may be eligible to receive a teaching or research assistantship.

Actuarial science is a rewarding profession that consistently ranks as one of the top jobs in the United States for salary, job security and job satisfaction. Open to students with undergraduate degrees in a variety of disciplines, this 30-credit-hour program enables you to succeed in careers in life insurance, pensions and property or casualty insurance. As a student in one of only 20 actuarial science programs in the United States designated as a Center for Actuarial Excellence by the Society of Actuaries (SOA), you will learn from distinguished faculty, benefit from a close-knit community and gain the knowledge necessary to pass the professional actuarial exams.

Previous coursework in actuarial science is not required, but you must have a strong aptitude for mathematics as well as a solid mathematical background, including calculus and mathematical statistics, for admittance with provisional or conditional standing. For admittance with full standing, you must also pass Exams P and FM of the SOA.

At Nebraska, economists begin with solid technical training in economic theory and quantitative methods and progress to applications of those tools in selected fields. Our 36-credit hour program prepares you for a Ph.D. program at Nebraska or other institutions. As a master’s student, you will take the same core classes as a doctoral student. If admitted to our Ph.D. program, your coursework and examinations transfer directly to the Ph.D. Before admittance to the program, we expect you to have strong academic achievement and training in economics, mathematics and statistics.

As business continually evolves, the need for professionals with backgrounds in both accounting and law rapidly increases. Retirement and estate planning, internal auditing, corporate accounting, and forensic accounting are growing fields, and tax attorneys and FBI tax agents are in high demand. The joint program, offered by the School of Accountancy and the College of Law, combines concepts and analytic methods from both fields.

As a student in the program, you will take a wide variety of courses that provide interdisciplinary insights, preparing you to sit for both the Bar exam and CPA exam. You must complete a total of 87 credit hours at the College of Law and 36 credit hours at the College of Business. You must meet the application requirements of each college to for admittance to the joint degree program.

This 73-credit hour, dual degree program focuses on the strengths between the professions of architecture and business administration. In recognizing the reality of these expanding interdisciplinary professional responsibilities and opportunities, this dual degree program provides a means of completing requirements for the Master of Business Administration (MBA) and the Master of Architecture (MArch) degrees in a three-year sequence. Individually, they each require two-year programs. While in the program, you may pursue either of the following: a master’s thesis track or professional project/design studio track.

Intended for those who hold a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies (BSAS) degree, you must satisfy all entrance requirements for each of the two master’s degree programs before admittance.

Our MBA-JD program integrates the study of law and business and thus expands career opportunities. The joint program is a collaboration between the Nebraska College of Business and the College of Law. Students who complete both degrees often go on to become transactional attorneys, corporate in-house counsel or compliance officers, non-profit directors, management consultants, investment bankers, human resource officers, entrepreneurs or business owners.

During the program, you will take a total of 84 credit hours from the College of Law and complete the 48 credit hours required to receive the MBA degree. Up to 15 hours of the 84 hours of courses taken at the College of Law can be used to satisfy the 48 hours required for the MBA degree. You must meet the application requirements of each college for admittance to the joint degree program.

Are you interested in learning about a diverse set of accounting areas, including audit, tax and financial accounting, using both experimental and archival-based research methods? Our small program gives you a personalized experience while collaborating closely with distinguished faculty and prepares you to conduct high-quality research with the goal of attaining a position at a research-oriented institution.

It normally takes four years to complete the program. If like many of our students, you come into the program with a master’s degree, those hours may be used to partially fulfill the requirements. Prior to entering the program, we expect you to complete the equivalent of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Calculus I-III.

All students take the same classes for the first semester, nine hours in each of the second, third and fourth semesters and three hours in the fifth. Your program of study will include at least four tool courses consistent with your chosen accounting concentration area (such as mathematics, econometrics or statistics). The program requires you to write a second-year research paper, complete a comprehensive examination, normally at the end of the fifth semester, and write an original dissertation, normally during the third and fourth years. In addition to the skills cultivated from coursework and collaborating closely with faculty, you will gain valuable insights through weekly workshops meant to familiarize you with accounting research topics and the scientific process.

Contact
Dr. Tom Kubick
tkubick@unl.edu

Are you thinking of pursuing an academic career in finance? An intensive course of study in both the theory and empirical application of finance, this lock-step program includes a combination of classroom instruction, seminars and work with distinguished finance faculty. You must pass written comprehensive examinations, write a dissertation and pass a final oral examination.

The program takes at least four years to complete with two years focused on the dissertation. Before starting the program, you should complete a minimum of one year of calculus and one semester of probability and statistics, but we strongly recommend three semesters of calculus, one semester of linear algebra and a probability and statistics course.

The curriculum requires a minimum of 42 hours of coursework in the Department of Finance, divided into 15 hours of finance seminars, nine hours of econometrics, nine hours of probability and statistics, six hours of economic theory and three hours of research and teaching methods classes. Forty-eight additional hours focus on the dissertation.

Contact
Dr. Julian Atanassov
julian@unl.edu

Are you interested in gaining expertise in and contributing new knowledge to the field of management? Pursing a doctorate in management is a versatile and lucrative degree for those interested in becoming professors and academic researchers. You can work in areas of organizational behavior, entrepreneurship, human resource management, strategic management and organization theory.

- Collegial faculty and student environment
- Complete your degree in 4-5 years
- Work with innovative and forward-thinking faculty
- Coursework entailing 4 foundational seminars supplemented with research methods, statistics and elective courses
- Departmental support for conference travel and research
- Emphasis on training students to craft original research publishable in reputable scholarly journals

Contact
Dr. Varkey Titus Jr.
vtitusjr2@unl.edu

Are you considering an academic career in marketing? Our program offers a stimulating and supportive environment that will challenge you to grow as a serious scholar who will contribute to knowledge in the field of marketing and develop as a researcher and teacher.

The program is tailored to meet your needs, objectives and prior coursework. It normally requires four years to complete: two to two-and-a-half years of coursework and the remaining time spent in dissertation research and writing. For consideration, you must have a master’s degree in business or related field from an accredited university.

Individual programs vary, but the curriculum typically consists of six marketing courses, several research methods courses, and four courses in an outside area relevant to your interests (such as communication, psychology, economics or sociology). Working closely with faculty, you will develop two papers and complete your dissertation. Over the duration of the program, you will teach for four academic semesters.

Additionally, you may attend brown bag seminars, faculty research seminars, visiting scholar presentations and the Mittelstaedt & Gentry Doctoral Symposium, which attracts doctoral candidates and faculty from the Big Ten and research universities west of the Mississippi River.

Contact
Dr. Amit Saini
asaini2@unl.edu

Are you interested in pursuing an academic career in supply chain management and analytics? Our doctoral program is designed for those interested in becoming professors and academic researchers with specializations in:

• Supply Chain Management
• Operations Management
• Analytics

Our program enables you to work closely alongside faculty to develop the research skills necessary to find solutions for important and challenging problems in diverse application areas including supply chains, health care, agriculture, transportation systems and many others.

The program consists of rigorous coursework and takes at least four years to complete, with the final two years focused on the dissertation. Before starting the program, you should have completed required calculus courses, one semester of linear algebra and statistics. We also strongly recommend one semester of intermediate microeconomics.

The curriculum requires 59-65 hours of coursework. This coursework will help you develop knowledge of a variety of research methods and will provide exposure to the main functional areas of operations management, supply chain management and analytics. You will also have the opportunity to choose electives based on your research interests. The required coursework includes 16 credit hours of supply chain management and analytics seminars, 10 credit hours of economics and 3 credit hours of statistics. The program of study also includes 25-31 credit hours that focus on the dissertation, which you will complete in close collaboration with our world-class faculty. You will also have the opportunity to teach at the undergraduate level under the mentorship of our faculty. Additionally, you can attend research seminars, industry presentations and professional conferences.

Contact
Dr. Özgür M. Araz
oaraz2@unl.edu

Are you interested in furthering your career as an economist? Our program enables you to work closely alongside faculty to develop the research skills necessary to answer the economic questions of today and pursue a career in academics, business or government.

The degree requires successful completion of coursework, comprehensive exams in two fields of concentration and doctoral dissertation. The core coursework consists of mathematical statistics, two courses in microeconomic theory, two in macroeconomic theory and two in econometrics. In addition, you will take at least two seminar courses in two major fields of concentration:

- Econometrics
- Economic education
- Feminist economics
- International trade and development
- Labor economics
- Public and urban economics

As a graduate student, you may work on research projects at one of our five centers: the Bureau of Business Research, Central Plains Research Data Center, National Center for Research in Economic Education, Nebraska Council on Economic Education and Lincoln Center for Economic Education.

Before entering the program, you must have intermediate level training in both macroeconomics and microeconomics, as well as a strong mathematical background including at least two semesters of calculus, a course in linear (matrix) algebra and a course in mathematical statistics. We also recommend experience with differential equations and math analysis.

Contact
Dr. Edward Balistreri
edward.balistreri@unl.edu

As a doctoral student at UNL, you may declare a doctoral minor in business from the College of Business in your Program of Studies. Per graduate school requirements, the minor’s credit hours are included in the total for the doctoral program and must include at least 15 hours, with 6 hours in courses open exclusively to graduate students (900 level, or 800 level, without 400 level or lower counterparts). The doctoral minor in business is flexible and gives you the freedom to choose classes that will advance your unique career objectives. The specific courses may come from one or more of the following departments:

- Accountancy
- Finance
- Management
- Marketing
- Supply Chain Management and Analytics

If you choose to minor in business, you may want to take courses from more than one department and pursue a breadth of knowledge in business or take courses from within a specific department. For example, if your program emphasizes administration (e.g., health, public, or education administration), you might choose to take courses from the Department of Management. If you study math or statistics, you may prefer doctoral minor courses in the Department of Finance or the Department of Supply Chain Management and Analytics. If you pursue psychology, you might want to focus your courses in the Department of Marketing. If you study in the Fine Arts, you might be interested in our courses in Entrepreneurship, housed in the Department of Management.

The minor is designed to allow UNL Ph.D. students from outside the College of Business to select courses that best supplement their doctoral program at Nebraska. Students in the Ph.D. Program in Business may not enroll in this minor, although students in the Ph.D. Program in Economics may do so.

Contact
Dr. Janet P. Near
jnear2@unl.edu