Posted on February 10, 2004 at 3:51 p.m.
BIRMINGHAM, AL — According to the U.S. Department of Labor, employment of computer and information systems (IS) professionals is expected to increase faster than all other occupations through the year 2010.
To help fill these positions, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Business will offer a new degree in information systems beginning fall 2004. The school has received approval from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education for the degree, and the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees gave its final approval for the major at its February 6 meeting.
Information systems professionals play a vital role in the technological direction of their organizations. People in technical IS positions develop and manage information and communications infrastructure. There also are people-oriented IS positions, such as technical support, sales or the design and operation of Internet and Intranet applications.
Frank Messina, Ph.D., chairman of the UAB Department of Accounting and Information Systems, said the growing number of students majoring in information systems was a key factor in deciding to seek degree status for the information systems concentration.
“Large financial institutions, hospitals, health care organizations, insurance firms and manufacturing plants have hired many of our IS concentration graduates and will continue to do so,” said Frank Messina, Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Accounting and Information Systems. “There also is high demand for these employees in small and medium size companies. Typically, these companies cannot afford IT consultants and depend upon full-time employees to staff their needs. By having a degree in information systems, students can work just about anywhere an IT professional is needed.”
The UAB program will provide a solid foundation of problem solving using information technology across various business disciplines so that graduates can pursue careers in the financial, health care, insurance, manufacturing and government sectors of the economy. The degree also will prepare graduates for professional programs and graduate school.
“In today’s economy, there is a tremendous need for information technology in assimilating, processing and disseminating information related to business processes,” said Robert Holmes, Ph.D., dean of the UAB School of Business. “Over the past 25 years, the United States has become a service economy, where a vast majority of jobs are knowledge based. Even the manufacturing and the agricultural sectors are heavily influenced by the impact of technology. For these reasons, the future employment outlook for people with information systems degrees is excellent.”