Master’s-Degree Programs Specialize to Keep Their Sheen

Amanda R. Bullington has a penchant for order. “I love organizing anything and everything,” she says.

Putting that passion to professional use, she went back to school last year to get a master’s in library science, with cataloging as her emphasis. She’s now in the second year of a two-year program in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina.

For students like Ms. Bullington, a master’s degree with a specialized or professional focus remains the key credential for building a good career in their chosen fields. But they also have more options than they once did. With alternative credentialing on the rise and job descriptions changing, master’s-level programs have had to adapt to keep up with students who seek an educational experience customized to their particular goals, and who put a premium on skills and experience that prospective employers will find valuable.

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There’s no evidence yet that badges and other kinds of alternative credentials have eaten into the master’s-degree market in library and information science. But the directors of the Association for Library and Information Science Education, or Alise, have an eye on the trend. “The Board of Directors has discussed if we have a role in certifying or badging, and we are looking at what that might require,” says Samantha K. Hastings, director of South Carolina’s library school and president of Alise’s board. Her school now offers post-master’s-level certificate and specialist programs, and students can pursue specializations such as health communication or work with an adviser to design an area of study. “It’s not the same as a badge, but the intention is to add skills to existing degrees,” Ms. Hastings says.

Master’s degrees have long been big business for colleges. In 2012-13, American institutions conferred more than 751,000 such degrees, according to the Department of Education. That was a 45-percent increase from the 2002-3 academic year, when colleges handed out 519,000 master’s degrees. Almost half of all M.A.-level degrees awarded in 2012-13 were in business and education.

But some master’s programs are under pressure to change with the times. Jeff Allum is director of research and policy analysis at the Council of Graduate Schools, which does an annual survey of graduate degrees and enrollment. The results reveal some of the broad shifts taking place at the M.A. level. Math, computer science, engineering, and health sciences are doing well, Mr. Allum says, with international students driving a lot of the growth. Fewer students are seeking out education degrees, which have historically made up a large portion of enrollments at the master’s level.

Part of the reason for the decline, he says, may be that some states have dropped the master’s degree as a credential for teachers’ advancement. The M.B.A. retains its appeal, according to the survey; foreign students are showing less interest in American business schools, but American students still flock to them.

AACSB International has accredited business schools for nearly a century. Its annual survey of accredited U.S.-based institutions has revealed a large increase in the number of specialized business M.A. degrees, says Thomas R. Robinson, the association’s president. “If you look at fields like finance, accounting, even computer science, and in the last couple of years data analytics, the depth of knowledge you need in those areas is much greater than it was before,” he says. M.A. degrees with a specialized focus tend to appeal to people who are early in their careers, he says, while the generalist M.B.A. provides broader skills that may serve workers better as they move into higher-level roles.

Many students now start with a specialized business master’s and go back for the general M.B.A. “Overall numbers are increasing regardless in all areas,” Mr. Robinson says. Based on a survey of 343 U.S.-based accredited institutions, AACSB data show a 31.3-percent increase from 2005-6 to 2013-14 in generalist M.B.A.s conferred; during that same period, more-specialized business M.A.s had a 95.2-percent increase. Over all, specialty master’s programs in areas such as finance and data analytics now account for about a third of graduate management degrees.

According to Mr. Robinson, the emergence of alternative credentials hasn’t undermined the M.B.A. “While there has been a rise in the demand for professional credentials other than degrees, there has not been a shift away from graduate management degrees,” he says.

A badge doesn’t have the showroom appeal of a degree from an elite institution — or its price tag — but even flagship programs have to keep an eye on changing conditions and stay fresh. At Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, demand for the degree has remained high, but what students want has undergone some shifts.

The school offers several master’s tracks, including public policy, public administration, and public administration/international development. “The master’s-in-public-policy degree program has seen a modest increase in the number of applications over the past five years, and there has been a great deal of interest in social entrepreneurship and issues related to sustainability,” says Karen Jackson-Weaver in an email. She’s senior associate dean of degree programs and student affairs.

The more versatile the training the school can offer, the likelier it will be to appeal to prospective students, she says.

Although the Kennedy School is in a position different from that of, say, a small, tightly focused program, it’s not immune from changing market conditions. Ms. Jackson-Weaver notes that many applicants are also applying to business and law programs, relying on financial aid and what she calls “perceived career outcomes” to decide where to pursue graduate credentials.

Students will increasingly look for programs that rely on interdisciplinary approaches to public-policy issues, she says, and technology and globalization will have more and more impact on the field.

In computer science, shifts in the popularity of the master’s degree over the past 10 years have paralleled shifts in technology and society, says Stu Zweben, an emeritus professor of computer science and engineering at Ohio State University. He’s also chair of the Computing Research Association’s survey committee, which gathers information on degrees granted.

Computer-science master’s degrees peaked in 2003-4, with more than 14,000 granted. That fell by 2010 to a low of 10,500 or so. In the past three years, though, people have begun to seek out the degree again. “Now we have social media and what it can do, and also the broadening of the connection of computing to basically everything in society,” Mr. Zweben says. “So there seems to be renewed interest in computing, and it’s affecting the different degree levels.” In 2013 just over 12,000 computer-science-related master’s degrees were granted.

If online courses and alternative credentials are tempting students away, Mr. Zweben hasn’t seen signs of it yet. “I don’t foresee this being an issue in the short term,” he says.

The need to keep up with an ever-changing cultural and technological environment has preoccupied leaders in library and information science, the field that drew Amanda Bullington to South Carolina for her master’s degree.

In one sense, that’s nothing new. Librarians have always been in the business of managing information. Ensuring that relevant professional degrees are attractive to prospective students, though, adds another layer of complexity, especially in an era of microcredentialing and niche skill-building.

How the degree ought to adapt is the subject of a report, “Re-Envisioning the MLS: Findings, Issues, and Considerations,” released in August by the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland.

John Carlo Bertot, a professor and co-director of the iSchool’s Information Policy & Access Center, was one of the authors of that report. He rattles off some of the challenges: changing technologies, shifting ideas of what libraries exist to do, a growing call for librarians with a strong interest in social change and public engagement. Midcareer workers used to be the ones most likely to pursue such a master’s degree. Now it attracts more people right out of college.

Not only are today’s students younger, but “there’s an activist air,” says Ms. Hastings, director of South Carolina’s library school. “There’s a desire to fix the world.” That means students are eager to learn not just how to manage print and digital collections but also how to handle environmental and community data, put social-work skills to use in serving many kinds of library patrons, and pursue careers outside traditional library spaces, at corporations or in government.

Ms. Bullington would love to be a special-collections cataloger but can see herself putting what’s she learned to good use in a range of jobs, inside or outside libraries. Every organization possesses information that has to be managed, stored, and made accessible to those who need it, she says.

But whatever new or traditional skills a master’s track delivers, the degree will get students only so far. Hands-on work may be the credential that really makes the difference, Ms. Bullington says. “You need to have that hands-on experience. You need to do it yourself.”

To that end, she works 35 hours a week at three jobs — all connected in some way to the work she wants to do in the future — while also taking three classes a semester toward her degree. “You can have the degree,” she says, “and at the end of the day, if you don’t have the experience, they’re not going to hire you.”

Jennifer Howard writes about research in the humanities, publishing, and other topics. Follow her on Twitter @JenHoward, or email her at jennifer.howard@chronicle.com.