The Hartford branch campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will close its Executive MBA program after currently enrolled students complete their degrees, school officials confirmed to the Hartford Business Journal.
The school is ending its Hartford masters in business administration program to better align the Troy, N.Y. college’s Hartford campus with the school’s 2024 goals, RPI spokesman Michael Mullaney said.
That means RPI’s core focus in Hartford will shift from graduate and professional programs in business to mechanical engineering and information technology, Mullaney said.
As part of this strategic shift, RPI will offer a new specialized program in industrial engineering for East Hartford manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, which has a program for employees to obtain advanced degrees.
RPI hopes to have 1,200 students enrolled at the Hartford campus by 2024, but as of December, it had only 185 graduate students, Mullaney said.
The Hartford campus cut back its staff early this summer to 35 employees. The employee count has been slashed further since, Mullaney said, to 24. At its height five years ago, RPI Hartford had about 100 employees.
