is an interdisciplinary master's degree program which integrates advanced technical training with business and professional leadership skills.
[2] PSM programs can be completed in sixteen months to two years of full-time or part-time study including a professional internship or a capstone project.
Recognizing that traditional graduate-level science training may not be suitable for non-academic careers, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, in 1997, began to support master's-level degree programs designed to provide science, technology, engineering, and mathematics ("STEM") students with a pathway into science-based careers.
[4] Originally funding fourteen campuses, the Sloan Foundation expanded its support directly or indirectly to over fifty institutions, collectively offering over 100 different PSM programs.
[5] In 2005, the Foundation funded the Council of Graduate Schools to be an “institutional base for PSM growth, with the goal of making the degree a normal, recognized, widely accepted academic offering”.