MS/OR Education: Meeting the New Demands on MS Education

The evolution of the field of management science and the new demands on it call for a new look at the MS curriculum. Courses that offer greater contact with real-world problems are needed, and curriculums that reflect the widespread use of computers and softwares must be offered, not, however, at the expense of theory. The MS curriculum should be designed to incorporate all these components in an appropriate sequence of courses.

Management sciences (MS) consists of both scientific detail and real-world applicability. Thus, there are two opposite domains in MS that Geoffroin calls “the world of action and affairs and the world of ideas and study”. The opposition of the two is vividly demonstrated in the controversy over approaches to MS education.