The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) and Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), Xi’an, China, have signed a curriculum articulation agreement around the UALR Master of Science in Information Quality (MSIQ) degree. “The UALR Graduate School is pleased to support this collaboration between our institution and Xi’an Jiaotong University. In approving the agreement, Dr. Paula Casey, Interim Dean of the UALR Graduate School stated that “Both programs will undoubtedly benefit from the partnership which will provide new opportunities for our students and faculty.” The agreement allows students from XJTU to apply coursework taken at XJTU toward the UALR MSIQ Degree. Students from XJTU participating in the articulated program will complete their degree by taking the remaining information quality courses at UALR. According to Professor Wei Huang, Dean of the XJTU School of Management, “As more university-qualified instructors in information quality are available, we plan to offer our own IQ degree programs. In the meantime, we are pleased that UALR has made their internationally recognized IQ education program available to our students.”
“The MS program in Information Quality is a unique program that has demonstrated very strong growth since its inception due to the strong demand of professionals in the area of information and data quality.” said Dr. Abhijit Bhattacharyya, Interim Dean of the UALR Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology that houses the IQ Graduate Program. “The exciting partnership with Xi’an Jiaotong University allows us to formalize academic and research collaboration with our partner institution in Information Quality as well as fuel the growth of the MSIQ program,” added Dr. Bhattacharyya.
UALR began offering the MSIQ degree in 2006 as an interdisciplinary program that combines courses in information science and management with newly developed courses in information quality. Since 2007, the MSIQ program has also been available online through webcasting of on-campus classes. In addition to the MSIQ degree, UALR now offers a Graduate Certificate in IQ and an IQ Track in its Integrated Computing PhD Program. The UALR information quality courses are based on curriculum material developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) IQ program including courses in the principles of IQ, IQ policy and strategy, IQ tools and industry landscape, and IQ theory. The courses approved for transfer from XJTU to UALR include database management, information systems analysis, information visualization, and data mining.
The MSIQ articulation agreement is the culmination of more than three years of collaboration in teaching and research led by Dean Huang at Xi’an Jiaotong, Dr. Richard Wang, MIT Chief Data Officer and Director of the MIT IQ Program, and Dr. John R. Talburt, Coordinator of the UALR IQ Graduate Program. Dr. Huang and Dr. Wang are both Affiliate members of the UALR Information Science faculty. The UALR Information Science Department led by Dr. Elizabeth Pierce is the home department for the IQ Graduate Program.
