American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo: Master of Science in Business Analytics
The Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) program at the American University of Beirut (AUB) is the top-ranked business analytics program in the MENA region (QS ranking 2022) and #1 in Eurasia and the Middle East (Eduniversal 2022).
It’s also a popular choice for AUB students: The number of students enrolled in the MSBA program at AUB has grown dramatically in just the last four years from 22 in fall 2018 more than 90 in fall 2022. “It’s the master’s degree that opens the door to all fields,” explains Dr. Wissam Sammouri, the coordinator of the MSBA program at AUB. MSBA graduates agree. Sarah Fleihan (MSBA ’21) is one of them. “When I joined the program, my intention was never a career shift from marketing, but rather to use the data collected on the audience I’m targeting to gain insights into their tastes, preferences, behaviors, and habits and then make necessary changes to improve their conversion rates. Signaling to the market that I might not be a technical expert with 4 years of experience but someone you can fully trust to put in front of the high management or technical team to brainstorm and turn data into actionable insights is what this master offered me.”
Sammouri explains that the MSBA program teaches students how to deal with data. “In the future,” he says, “all jobs will involve data in some way. I’m not saying that everyone will be a data analyst, but I am saying that no matter what your career path is, you will have a competitive advantage if you have solid knowledge and experience in working with data.” Jaafar Hoteit (BSN ’20, MSBA ’22), who earned his undergraduate degree in nursing, says that it was his passion for healthcare that triggered his interest in data analytics. “I could see right away how I would be able to improve sustainability, at both the patient and institutional level, with data analytics,” he says.
The MSBA program at the American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo will fundamentally mirror the very successful program at AUB in Beirut (with core courses in business understanding, data processing framework, applied statistical analysis, predictive analytics and machine learning, optimization and simulation, and data visualization and communication), but there will be differences – especially in the choice of electives. “Addressing the current and future needs of the market is something that is of primary importance to us,” says Sammouri. “At AUB in Beirut, several of the electives that we offer include components related to data and consumers in the MENA region. In Pafos, we will focus on the needs of Cyprus and Europe more broadly.” There will be extensive links and interaction between the MSBA programs in Pafos and Beirut though, which makes the MSBA program at AUB Mediterraneo “a perfect fit” for European students who are interested in working in the MENA region.