Penn Engineering announced its new Online Accelerated Master’s Program — set to begin this fall — on Jan. 9.
Upon admission and matriculation, the program will allow undergraduate students to take up to three graduate-level courses and apply them toward a Penn Engineering online master’s degree. After graduation, students will have three years to complete the remaining online degree requirements at their own pace.
In a statement to The Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn Engineering Director for Online Student Experience Kristen Burkett explained that the program was conceptualized and developed after the school received student feedback on the difficulty of completing a master’s degree.
“Many engineering students plan to continue into graduate study, but once they graduate and start working or move to a new location, staying enrolled in an on-campus program can become difficult,” Burkett wrote. “This program was created to bridge that gap by giving students a way to continue their graduate studies online, without losing the progress they’ve already made.”
Senior Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Global Initiatives Boon Loo wrote in a statement to the DP that Penn’s online accelerated master’s program will allow Engineering students to balance their educational goals with “full-time work, geographic mobility, and evolving career paths.”
“This program reflects a broader shift in engineering education toward flexibility, lifelong learning, and alignment with workforce realities,” Loo wrote, emphasizing that students can earn “the same Penn Engineering degree,” but make use of a more flexible program structure.
Loo wrote that Penn Engineering’s accelerated pathway is “distinctive” from those at other universities, citing that the program integrates “residential graduate coursework with a fully online, asynchronous master’s degree” in a model that maintains academic rigor.
He also wrote that the School of Engineering plans to contact recent alumni who did not complete their master’s programs and inform them of the launch of Penn’s new online program.
“For many of these individuals, work, relocation, or other life commitments made it difficult to remain enrolled on campus,” Loo wrote. “And this model offers a practical opportunity to return and finish their degree.”
