RICHARDSON, Texas (Sept. 14, 2005) – The Project Management Program at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) School of Management has become one of only five such programs in the world to become accredited. The accreditation was announced Saturday, Sept. 10, during the Project Management Institute (PMI) Global Congress in Toronto.

“I’m very honored,” said Jim Joiner, director of the UTD Project Management Program. “This gives us the ability to say that we have been examined by outside professionals, measured by their standards and found to be in compliance with their requirements. It puts us in an elite group of world-class programs.”

UTD’s Project Management Program and Ecole Superieur de Commerce in Lille, France, were the only two programs accredited at the annual conference. They are the fourth and fifth schools in the world to become accredited, joining the University of Quebec, the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., and Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, N.C.

Accreditation is achieved only after successfully completing a rigorous screening process that begins with a thorough self-study of the program and is followed by a report that the school submits to the PMI Global Accreditation Center. If that report is approved, it is sent to a team of professionals who conduct a site visit and then submit a final recommendation to the Global Accreditation Center.

Joiner helped found the UTD Project Management Program in 1997. At the time, less than 25 such programs existed worldwide; today there are more than 100.

“We thought it would be a small, localized program on campus, but the project management field has exploded,” Joiner said. “We now have about 90 students and offer it online as well as on campus.”

David Springate, associate dean for executive education in the School of Management, said that the PMI site visitation committee was impressed with the UTD program’s integrated curriculum as well as the fact that the program has a parallel online program. “Achieving this prestigious accreditation shows the recognized quality of our Project Management Program,” Springate said. “With this accreditation, UTD now offers one of very few accredited programs in the world for project management that leads to an executive MBA degree.”

With the accreditation approved, Joiner said the program now gains even more credibility. The UTD Project Management Program offers three avenues to career advancement, beginning with a certificate in Project Management, which then can be used either to pursue an M.S. degree in management or an MBA degree. Today, Project Management certification is considered an important indicator of skill and a facilitator of career advancement.

Dr. Hasan Pirkul, dean of the UTD School of Management, noted that a certain amount of global esteem accompanies such accreditation.

“This brings international recognition to the excellence of management education offerings at UTD,” he said. “We have put together a unique complement of executive education courses to meet the needs of managers seeking to learn how to become effective in today’s international economy.”

Joiner, who attended PMI’s Global Congress, said he is enthusiastic about the future of the Project Management Program at UTD and is pleased with the university’s vision to launch and support it.

“I feel very good about this,” Joiner said of Saturday’s announcement. “I am proud of the UTD School of Management for supporting this program from the beginning, and proud of my team for building such a world-class program. This is a great day for all of us.”

About the UTD School of Management

Based on publications in the top 22 business journals spanning all areas of business, The University of Texas at Dallas School of Management faculty ranks 37th in research productivity among business school faculties nationwide, and U.S. News and World Report ranks the school’s Cohort MBA program among the top 64 full-time MBA programs in the nation and among the top 35 at public colleges and universities

The School of Management is the largest of UTD’s seven schools, with an enrollment that

has doubled over the last eight years to about 4,400 students. The school’s new 204,000-square-foot building features classrooms with state-of-the-art audio and visual equipment, wireless connectivity, video-conferencing facilities, a computer lab, faculty offices, meeting rooms and an executive education center.

About UTD

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls more than 14,500 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s website at www.utdallas.edu.