History of the Dartmouth Program
Engineering management was the first professional field other than civil engineering to be offered at Thayer School. The original "Tuck-Thayer" degree was introduced in 1942 and allowed students to continue beyond the undergraduate degree at Dartmouth to take two years of engineering and business courses. The degree program led to a Master of Science in Industrial Administration.
Thayer School, looking for new ways to support innovation and entrepreneurial efforts, created a new track in its graduate program in 1988, later approved as a separate degree called the Masters of Engineering Management (MEM) in 1997. Its conceptual roots were in the former MS in Industrial Administration degree, but the traditional thesis requirement in Engineering was dropped and a revised curriculum produced. The new MEM Program, in partnership with the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, tied courses in engineering analysis and design to courses in business skills that graduates would need to bring their ideas to market.
This new curriculum of 1988 offered Thayer School engineering analysis and design courses and a management core sequence. It drew on Tuck School faculty to teach the management core material and was initially led by Tuck School's Professor Ken Baker as Director. The curriculum called, in part, for more compressed management learning and was aimed at students wanting to combine their engineering backgrounds with knowledge and skills in business leadership. Although similar degree programs existed at a few other engineering schools and more came into existence in the 1990's, the Thayer School MEM Program has remained particularly strong because of its close association and partnership with the Tuck School.
The MEM Program has grown substantially in enrollment over the last five years, broadened its demographics, and strengthened its curriculum in several respects. In the business world, increasing technological complexity in products and operations emphasizes the need for skills in both technical areas and business areas, a core foundation of the MEM Program preparation. Entering class sizes of 25 students in the 2003-era program are now capped at 50, and the mix of U.S. and international students is evenly split. The program faces increasing demand with applications growing from less than 100 in 2003 to now over 265, more than a 150% increase.
Curriculum changes have also strengthened the Program and kept it current to employment needs. Courses in technology assessment, accounting, and risk assessment have recently been introduced, and the elective list now includes business law with an entrepreneurial focus, as well as technology project management, among others.
Beyond the student numbers and the curriculum, the MEM Program moved into dedicated space over the Feldberg Engineering/Business Library at Dartmouth. This program home is on a bridge facility connecting Thayer School and Tuck School, providing a highly collaborative student, faculty, and staff work environment.
In 2006, Dartmouth led the formation of a consortium of similar MEM-like programs at prestigious universities. The Master of Engineering Management Programs Consortium (MEMPC) members shared program commonalities but, more importantly, a common goal of raising corporate awareness of the preparation and skills of MEM graduates. Towards this end, this website was created and its content offers information and insights about the field.
The future for Dartmouth's MEM Program is very bright. Demand for its graduates continues to grow, as do career placements for graduates despite the variations in the economy. Job placements for the MEMs, outpacing those of many other degree preparation fields, suggest a growing awareness of the potential contributions that can be made by the modern technologist/manager, an engineer who means business.