School of Data Science and Society announces new professional degree programs

The Old Well, surrounded by trees with fall-colored leaves on them, on a sunny day. — Students can apply to the new data science professional programs starting this December. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

UNC-Chapel Hill students now have access to two new professional degree programs through the UNC School of Data Science and Society.

The Master of Science in data science and the doctorate in data science were approved at the Nov. 20 UNC Board of Governors meeting, and applications for both programs open in early December. These new degrees are an addition to the school’s Bachelor of Science in data science and online Master of Applied Data Science programs.

Students will have core coursework in mathematical and statistical foundations, computational thinking, machine learning, artificial intelligence and data engineering. All degree programs at SDSS require coursework in both communications and ethics.

“We’re grateful to the Board of Governors for approving these two new graduate degrees which will create an additional pipeline of data scientists for our state and our world,” Dean Stan Ahalt said. “These graduate students will not only accelerate our faculty’s research, but make discoveries of their own, using the most cutting-edge tools and models. We’re excited to welcome our first cohort of residential graduate students.”

For both graduate programs, students will select one of four specialization tracks for their studies:

Advanced data science foundations and AI (available fall 2026)
Applications in physical, biological and health sciences (available fall 2026)
Applications in social sciences and humanities (available fall 2027)
Data engineering (available fall 2027)

Applications for the M.S. in data science and doctorate in data science programs open in early December with a Jan. 15 priority deadline and a Feb. 10 final deadline. For more information, visit datascience.unc.edu.