Beijing Normal University
Educational program of Master of Project Management （MPM）
(This program only apply to students after 2013)
I．Introduction
Project exists anywhere and almost everyone has experiences of project management and implement. Project management, as a general management technology, has been widely applied in various engineering fields. It applies and combines multiple management processes, including launch, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure, etc. It is a project targeted and goal-oriented systematic management method, with “routinization, dynamicalization, systematization and visualization” as its management approach, “optimization and dynamic management” as its core feature, “customer-centric” and “planning-focused” management as its core idea, and “satisfaction of project stakeholders” as its core objective. As for the professional degree of MPM, the disciplinary characteristics of project management should be highlighted into “engineering plus management”, for it is general science and technology of project management that are widely applied. With innovation playing a more and more crucial role in wealth accumulation and the increasing of globalization and competition, organizations have to aim at project and conduct precision management, focusing on planning and controlling, so to improve efficiency. The grasp of the project management concept and methods as well as the improvement of the project management competence is becoming a main part of the core competence construction for all kinds of organizations.
II．Educational objective:
The objective of training program of Master of Project Management (MPM) in Beijing Normal University is: to cultivate applied, interdisciplinary and high-level engineering management talents, who can deal with project life-cycle management, including decision-making, planning, implement, controlling and evaluation, for enterprises, public institutions and project-managing departments.
MPM are required to have a solid theoretical foundation in their field, have a wide breadth of general knowledge and know the development trend of project management at home and abroad. They should be able to independently conduct project planning and evaluation, project financing, project organizing, project purchasing, project scheduling, project implementing and control, project risk management, project human resource management and project communication management, etc. They should also be good at English, so that they can read related articles and do a certain oral and written communication.
Through the cultivation in this field, graduates will be quite qualified for the project management in various industries. They can become general manager, R&D manager, project manager, project evaluator and management consulting experts, etc.
III. Cultivation mode
The part-time study mode is adopted to cultivate MPM, with duration of 2 to 4 years and 2 phases of course and thesis.
Course phase：Students can study at weekend or take massed courses a few times per year. Students from enterprises will be assigned to a special class, where they can take full-time or semi-full-time training. Generally speaking, students should get 32 credits within 2 years. After they have finished their courses with qualified scores, they can move on to the thesis phase.
Thesis phase：MPM should combine their graduation thesis with their engineering tasks. The form of thesis can be monographic research results, high-level research reports or case analysis reports.
IV． Research areas
According to the research projects and research fields of the master supervisors, the research areas of MPM are as follows:
1. Field project management (IT, real estate);
2. Service management;
3. Event management;
4. Public project management(includes education);
5. Project management technology.
V. Curriculum and credit
1. Credit and time arrangement
The total credits of MPM should be no less than 32 credits, including no less than 27 credits in specialized courses and 5 credits of compulsory activities.
For the students of (or before) 2012, they are required to get no less than 30 credits, including no less than 26 credits in specialized courses and 4 credits of compulsory activities.
Students should finish their courses within 1.5 year and finish their graduation thesis within 1 to 2.5 years.
2. Curriculum
The curriculum system includes degree courses (includes public required courses, degree fundamental courses, degree specialized courses and specialized elective courses) and compulsory activities. The design of this system emphasizes the teaching method of “small credits plus practicalness plus cases”.
|
Course category |
Subjects and courses |
(minimum) Credit requirement |
Degree courses |
Public required courses, |
Dialectics of Nature, Specialized English, 2 courses |
4 |
Degree fundamental courses |
Engineering Economics, Operations Research and Statistics, Management, 3 courses |
8 |
Degree specialized courses |
Degree specialized courses, 6 courses |
10 |
Specialized elective courses |
12 courses |
5 |
Compulsory activities |
Compulsory activities |
Information Retrieval Method and Thesis Writing |
1 |
Project Management Lecture and Salon |
3 |
Master’s Degree Proposal, Pre-Thesis Defense and Thesis Defense |
1 |
Degree courses: (No less than 27 credits)
Public required courses: Dialectics of Nature (2 credits), Project Management and Specialized English (2 credits), totaled 4 credits.
Degree fundamental courses: Operations Research and Statistics (3 credits), Engineering Economics (3 credits), Management (2 credits), totaled 8 credits.
Degree specialized courses: Introduction to Project Management (2 credits), Project Planning and Control (2 credits), Project Risk Management (2 Credits), Project Management Software and Application (2 credits), Case Study of Project Management (2 credits), Feasibility Analysis and Project Evaluation (2 credits), totaled 12 credits, with minimum requirement of 10 credits.
Degree elective courses：Project Human Resource Management and Communication (1 credit), Project Procurement Management (1 credit), Project Cost Management (1 credit), Project Cost Control (1 credit), Real Estate Project Development and Management (1 credit), System Thinking (1 credit), Event Management (1 credit), System Dynamics and Application (1 credit), Project Team Management (1 credit), Project Audit (1 credit), Project Bidding Management (1 credit), Project Performance Evaluation (1 credit). The minimum requirement is 5 credits.
Compulsory activities (5 credits)
Cutting-Edge Lectures and Salon, including expert lectures and student activities, etc. totaled 16 activities (3 credits); Information Retrieval Methods and Thesis Writing (1 credits); Master’s Degree Proposal, Pre-Thesis Defense and Thesis Defense (1 credit).
Degree elective courses can be redesigned as needed when cooperate with industry.
VI. Requirements of scientific research ability and practical ability
Through the program of MPM, students should be able to obtain the following scientific research abilities and practical abilities:
1. Competence of acquiring knowledge: by classroom learning, self-study, communication and discussion, etc. students should be able to obtain information they need quickly and accurately from books, media, periodicals, reports, patents, Internet, etc. They ought to analyze, summarize, conclude and express the information they have got. They are required to be familiar with the literature review in their field, know about the major progress and conduct comprehensive analyses. They should be able to decide what questions have already been studies, with what method, what questions remain unsolved, and what are the arguments on these questions, so to direct their own study and thesis and obtain the background knowledge of their own research. In short, students should learn to make full use of all available resources to constantly increase knowledge and improve ability.
2. Competence of knowledge application: students should be able to obtain and correctly analyze the related data. They should comprehensively apply the fundamental and specialized knowledge they have learned. They have to master the related technologies and methods in their field. They also have use the related software and methods to analyze, forecast, optimize, design and simulate projects. Besides, they are required to be observant to identify and understand the success factors in a project and conduct qualitative and quantitative analysis to solve engineering management problems in their field.
3. Competence of engineering practice: students should be able to extract universal problems from engineering management practice so as to solve them by systematic design, analyzing, optimizing and constant practice. Students are required to analyze the objective, demand, scope, environmental factor, restrictive condition, etc. of the problem to be solved, so as to propose solutions as well as compare and optimize the solutions. They should design the solution in details by calculating the necessary manpower, material resources, capital and time so to make a feasible scheme. What’s more, they should be able to organize the launch, planning, implement, monitoring and ending of the project, standarize the technical implementation, and strictly control the progress of project, resource consumption, quality and risk, etc.
4. Competence of exploration and innovation: students should be able to have a keen insight into and accept new things, so to discover, learn, and master advanced theories and methods. They have to learn from the experience to enhance theory learning. They should be good at learning, identifying and applying advanced ideas and experience. They ought to draw inferences and flexibly apply the knowledge they have learned into practice, so that they can solve problems combining theory and practice. Moreover, students are also required to grasp the leading edge information and development trend of project management, focus on original innovation, integrated innovation, secondary innovation in their field, and advance with times in both knowledge and ability.
5. Comprehensive ability: characterized by “engineering and management”, project management takes human as a crucial part of the system to study and manage. Therefore, MPM requires the ability of systematic thinking, leadership, organizing and coordination, so to conduct effective communication, organize team, labor divide and accomplish the target as planned, etc. Students are required to conduct oral and written communication and make presentation. In the process of topic selection, thesis writing and thesis defense, students should be able to logically and normatively report and write. Furthermore, they ought to appropriately design, present and defense their research proposal, method and result, as well as evaluate and draw reference from others’ work.
VII. Mid-term examine
1. The mid-term examine of MPM take place in the 8th week in the third semester, being in the charge of MPM group (sub-academic degrees committee).
2. The mid-term examine includes the courses and the defense on master’s degree proposal.
VIII. Graduation thesis and degree awarding
The topic of MPM’s graduation thesis (project) should come directly from project management practice or have a specific project management background and application value. It could be a relatively complete project planning or research, an engineering design project or technological transformation project, a research on technological breakthrough, or a research on the development and manufacture of some new technology, new equipment, new material and new product. The topic should be of a certain degree of technological complexity, advancement and workload so to demonstrate author’s ability that by comprehensively applying the scientific management theory, method and technology, they can solve project management problem in practice.
The form of MPM’s graduation thesis includes applied research, case analysis and research report. “Bi-tutor” mechanism is applied in cultivation. Therefore, students should independently finish their thesis under the guidance of an internal tutor and an external tutor. Students are given enough time to finish their graduation thesis, generally no less than one year. The thesis should be more than 250, 000 words, with standard format, organized sections, clear concept, precise exposition, concise expression and reliable results. Students are encouraged to publish research paper on periodicals or at conferences, to apply for patent or award and to get authentication or apply into practice.
The topic of applied research should have a specific engineering background and application value. Students are encouraged to combine their research with practical engineering problems. Thesis should be of a certain degree of technique difficulty and theoretical depth. And the result should be of advancement and practicability, as well as considerable economic or social benefit. The main portion of an applied research should include heading, introduction, literature review, research content, conclusions, references and appendix.
The topic of case analysis should be of typicality and representativeness. The case has to be real. If students are required to modify some data, they have to keep the coordination of data. The main portion of a case analysis should include heading, introduction, background information, case analysis, conclusions, references and appendix. Necessary first-hand survey data should be handed in as appendix.
Research report has to be of considerable theoretical and practical significance. The research should be done with scientific method and a certain amount of workload. Both the research and the data processing should be done by the author. The research conclusion should be correct and be of a certain range and a certain degree of universal significance. The main portion of a research report should include heading, introduction, background information, research, conclusions, references and appendix. Necessary first-hand survey data should be handed in as appendix.
The proposal of MPM’s graduation thesis (project) should be finish in the third semester, no later than the forth semester. The proposal needs to be examined by the committee of project management and the two tutors.
After students have finished their theses, a leading group would arrange a pre-thesis defense, in which professors and the two tutors would have a discussion on the academic quality, authenticity and format of students’ theses. Anyone who has not passed the pre-thesis defense cannot get into thesis evaluation or thesis defense. All the evaluators are external experts, who make anonymous evaluation. The “one-vote negation system” is applied in thesis defense.
Format of MPM’s graduation thesis should refer to “Format of MPM’s graduation thesis of Beijing Normal University”.
Students who have finished the courses and passed the thesis defense can get the MPM degree.
School of Systems Science
Beijing Normal University
December 17th, 2013
Educational program of Master of Project Management.pdf