TU’s marketing intelligence M.S. receives STEM designation from the Department of Homeland Security

By Gay Pinder on March 10, 2017

Towson University’s Master of Science in marketing intelligence is now a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program as defined by the Department of Homeland Security. This designation has a direct impact on TU international students enrolled in this field.

Marketing intelligence graduates with F-1 visas can remain in the United States an additional 24 months under the optional practical training STEM extension. The extension makes it possible for students to undertake practical training for 36 months. 

Marketing intelligence is the integration of marketing research, strategy, analytics, data management and interactive marketing. Towson University's master's degree program in marketing intelligence with an embedded Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in interactive marketing is designed with an applied, experiential-learning focus based on industry needs.

A key advantage of the TU program is access to two databases of more than 30 million U.S. adults with 230 million consumer data points and 16 million U.S. business data points for market research. Through this hands-on research and rigorous coursework, students acquire, analyze and use marketing data, and gain the experience necessary to enter high-level positions responsible for strategic decisions.

“These databases are very valuable to us,” says Philippe Duverger, associate professor of marketing. “We are able to train the students getting their master’s in marketing intelligence to analyze this data. This is cutting-edge—not many schools are doing this as they don’t have access to such a great real-life resource.”

The research firm CEGA Consulting donated the databases to the university. Data points include information such as age, gender, zip codes, whether they own or rent a home, if they have a mortgage and how much their house is worth, credit scores and income levels. It also includes information about what subscriptions they have to different lifestyle magazines.

The use of this lifestyle and demographic information allows students to gain computer science skills that marketers don’t typically learn, fulfilling a gap between information technology and marketing.

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel's priorities for Towson University: Strategic Plan Alignment