Zaragoza Logistics Center inagurates its Graduate Education Program

The MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program, an academia-government partnership between the Center and the Government of Aragón in Spain, inaugurates its graduate education program on August 30, 2004.

The MIT-Zaragoza program will be located in a custom-built facility in the massive PLAZA logistics park adjacent to Zaragoza, Spain. Major companies distribute products globally from PLAZA, providing a real-life setting for the program’s education and research activities. “Instead of putting a laboratory in a university, this initiative puts the university within a large-scale laboratory,” said Yossi Sheffi, Director of MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics.

The new masters program teaches students a combination of managerial and analytical skills geared to the global marketplace. It involves nine months of intensive, hands-on, and specialized education, including formal exchanges with the MIT Master of Engineering in Logistics program, recently ranked first among graduate programs in logistics and supply chain management by U.S. News & World Report.

The response to the Zaragoza-based degree has been overwhelming. The number of student applications was triple the initial target, resulting in a class of 22 students representing 12 countries, with an average GMAT score comparable to leading MBA programs like INSEAD and London Business School.

Drawing from over 100 qualified applicants, three permanent faculty members with strong academic records and deep experience in industry have been hired for the MIT-Zaragoza program. A number of highly distinguished academics from Germany, Spain and the U.S. will join as visiting faculty throughout the next year.

The MIT-Zaragoza program has also launched a broad research agenda supported by sponsor companies. The first research initiative, Supply Chain 2020, is a multiyear project that maps successful supply chains as far into the future as the year 2020. A Supply Chain 2020 European Advisory Council of companies is being created to complement a council of more than 20 companies in the United States.

According to MIT President Charles M. Vest, “The MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program will serve as a model for close cooperation between industry and academia and for moving the results of university research quickly and effectively into practice.”

“The new program will put Zaragoza at the forefront of international logistics education and research,” said Marcelino Iglesias, President of Aragón.