Luiss Business School Announces Scholarships for Space Degrees

• Luiss Business School is offering two new space business degree programs starting this fall.
• Those programs include space business management and space entrepreneurship.
• The school is offering six scholarships, three per degree program, that cover half of tuition.
• The deadline to apply for the scholarships is Sept. 15.

With companies like SpaceX fueling the future of privatized space exploration and travel, one international business school is taking a unique approach to preparing its students for the burgeoning industry.

Luiss Business School, headquartered in Italy, will roll out two new master's degree programs at its Amsterdam location this November: space entrepreneurship and space business management. The school recently announced six scholarships — three for both of the new master's programs — that will cover half of the programs' tuition.

The school has a heavy emphasis on international students, and Luiss Business School "welcomes candidates from all over the world with different academic and working backgrounds," according to an admissions fact sheet.

Students have until Sept. 15 to apply for the scholarships as part of applying for admission. Students need to have a bachelor's degree to qualify for the part-time programs.

The space business management master's degree program "aims to offer the missing managerial competences to those highly specialized professionals who operate in the space sector or who intend to move there, to enable their professional growth into top positions," according to the program website.

The space entrepreneurship program is geared toward those who "want to launch or grow their company in the space industry." Curriculum includes overviews of international relations and space laws, the current state of the space industry, overviews of engineering and accounting in the space industry, and general graduate business courses.

Base tuition for each of the programs is €16,000, or around $17,468, according to the programs' websites.

A number of companies and organizations have signed on to support the two programs, including the European Space Agency, the Italian aerospace company Leonardo, and others.

Luiss Business School's new degrees come as the space industry is projected to see meteoric growth over the next decade, according to the business consulting firm McKinsey & Company. The space market has already grown to $447 billion as of earlier this year from $280 billion in 2010, and McKinsey projects the industry could grow to $1 trillion by 2030.

That includes an increased number of space startups, more satellite launches, decreasing launch costs per kilo, and increased annual private funding, according to McKinsey.

Schools have embraced space-related programs in recent years, including the University of Houston, which earlier this year debuted extended reality simulations to help students studying space architecture.