Before the spread of COVID-19 and the move to online delivery across the Brown University curriculum, PRIME program faculty and staff were busy translating the existing classroom-based eleven-month master’s degree program in innovation and entrepreneurship to a blended (online and face-to-face) format. Classes for the new program will begin July 13, 2020.
While the program has historically been popular with fifth-year master students, the traditional classroom delivery option was not ideal for many prospective students who work elsewhere in the country, were starting new jobs distant from Providence or who wanted to keep their geographic and timing options open as they continued their spring term job search.
“Brown had extensive experience developing blended executive programs such as the Master's in Technology Leadership, so why not go the other way and translate a successful face-to-face program, such as PRIME, to this new delivery model?” noted PRIME Director Pat McHugh. He continued “Our popular on-campus offering will continue; however, as we teach in our program we always need to be innovating.”
The program is introducing an immediate soft launch, and prospective students who apply before May 15th will pay no application fee and be exempt from standardized test requirements (no GREs or GMATs). For additional information about the new blended option, email Tina Garfinkel at prime@brown.edu or visit prime.brown.edu on the web.
A spillover benefit of developing the blended program offering has been a number of improvements in the traditional eight course face-to-face offering as well. PRIME will now start during summer term with the delivery of two business engineering fundamentals courses. With this foundation in finance, marketing and strategy students will be well able to participate in a new internship offering during their reduced course load in the fall and spring terms and be well equipped to participate in the fall recruiting cycle.
Introducing this program at this unprecedented time will hopefully also address the dynamic and changing needs of potential students as all communities seek ways to progress learning and career objectives safely. As noted by Sorensen Family Dean of Engineering Larry Larson, “The PRIME master’s program has a very unique value proposition that can help students position themselves for when the economy turns around following this crisis. As work slows and we require social distancing, starting this program now could actually be a great way for prospective students to take advantage of newly available time. I am optimistic that this new offering will be a great success.”