University of Hartford to Launch Supply Chain Management Degree

• The University of Hartford is offering a supply chain management undergraduate degree.
• Supply chain management degrees can lead to jobs as logisticians, analysts, and purchasing agents.
• Employment of logisticians is set for meteoric growth over the next decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
• School officials said local employers underscored the need for supply chain management workers.

With logistics jobs set for explosive growth over the next decade, the University of Hartford is launching a new undergraduate degree program in supply chain management.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that the employment of logisticians, who work with an organization's supply chain, will grow by 28% over the next decade — a meteoric pace that is much faster than the average rate of growth for all jobs.

Supply chain management degrees can open up well-paying jobs in high-demand fields for graduates, including positions as logistics analysts, purchasing agents, sourcing agents, and other logistics-related roles. Logisticians brought in a median annual wage of more than $77,500 in 2022, according to the BLS.

The new Hartford supply chain management degree program aims to prepare students for that intensive and rapidly growing field. The curriculum will focus on "the design, planning, analysis, execution, and control of the sourcing, production, storage, and delivery activities of products from point of origin to point of consumption," according to the school's press release.

"We are thrilled to offer the new supply chain and logistics management program," Carmen Cotei, the interim dean of the University of Hartford's Barney School of Business, said in the release. "These jobs focus on the digital transformation, analytics, risk management, and sustainability, and this is exactly what we had in mind when we designed the curriculum for this program."

Cotei said there is a high demand for supply chain managers in the region.

"In talking with top employers from our region, they have shared that there is excess demand for the supply chain and logistics jobs with 300-500 new jobs added in Connecticut every month," Cotei said in the release.

The university also added a supply chain minor and post-baccalaureate certificates to allow students from outside of the major to take advantage of the program, according to the release.