10 Most Affordable Bachelor’s in Technology Management

For stu­dents who are pay­ing their own way through school, find­ing an afford­able tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment degree can require poten­tial appli­cants to do some research. Afford­abil­i­ty isn’t just a mea­sure­ment of the tuition costs involved with a degree pro­gram. High­er learn­ing of any type comes with sev­er­al asso­ci­at­ed costs, many of which can take peo­ple by sur­prise. Nev­er­the­less, with a lit­tle dili­gence, appli­cants can find a num­ber of afford­able tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment degrees that will give them an incred­i­ble return on their invest­ments. When look­ing for afford­able tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment degrees, appli­cants must make sure they under­stand every­thing that comes includ­ed with the pro­gram and every­thing the pro­gram expects the appli­cant to pro­cure on their own.

It’s also pos­si­ble to turn slight­ly more expen­sive degree pro­grams into afford­able tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment degrees by pur­su­ing all pos­si­ble avenues of finan­cial aid. This part of the process can often go over­looked or under­used. Appli­cants should look for grants, loans, schol­ar­ships, spon­sor­ships, tuition reim­burse­ment pro­grams, pro­grams based on income lev­el or soci­etal sta­tus, and every­thing else that can help them shave mon­ey off the cost of their tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment degree.

Methodology: Ranking the Most Affordable Technology Management Degrees

Many stu­dents today are pay­ing their way through col­lege, and cost is def­i­nite­ly a con­cern. How­ev­er, the edi­tors at Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter know that qual­i­ty is also crit­i­cal, so our Most Afford­able rank­ings fea­ture only accred­it­ed, rep­utable insti­tu­tions known for a pos­i­tive impact on grad­u­ates’ careers.

1. South Texas College

South Texas Col­lege fea­tures a BAT in Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment pro­gram that’s designed to teach stu­dents to become effec­tive tech­nol­o­gy man­agers for their orga­ni­za­tions. The pro­gram com­bines prac­ti­cal train­ing and real-life projects so stu­dents can apply their edu­ca­tion in an envi­ron­ment that mir­rors what they will face when employed. Stu­dents learn the fun­da­men­tals of infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy, man­u­fac­tur­ing, finance and busi­ness man­age­ment dur­ing their edu­ca­tion. The pro­gram is a selec­tive pro­gram and stu­dents have to meet cer­tain cri­te­ria when apply­ing to attend.

South Texas Col­lege (STC) is a pub­lic com­mu­ni­ty col­lege and is part of the Texas pub­lic col­lege sys­tem. The school enrolls 31,000 stu­dents each aca­d­e­m­ic year and offers asso­ci­ate’s degrees along with the Bach­e­lor of Applied Tech­nol­o­gy. It’s home to the North Amer­i­can Advanced Man­u­fac­tur­ing Research and Edu­ca­tion Ini­tia­tive and is the Region­al Insti­tute for Advanced Manufacturing.

Degree: BAT in Tech­nol­o­gy Management

South Texas Col­lege BAT in Tech­nol­o­gy Management

2. Gulf Coast State College

The BAS in Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment pro­gram at Gulf Coast State Col­lege is a trans­fer degree for stu­dents who have an asso­ci­ate’s degree in soft­ware and data­base devel­op­ment, net­work sys­tems tech­nol­o­gy, or cyber­se­cu­ri­ty. It’s also avail­able to stu­dents who have an asso­ci­ate’s of art degree who wants to improve their tech­nol­o­gy and lead­er­ship skills. The pro­gram pro­vides hands-on activ­i­ties that mir­ror what stu­dents would encounter in their field of employ­ment. Small class sizes enable stu­dents and edu­ca­tors to work more effec­tive­ly with one anoth­er and aid stu­dents in earn­ing top grades.

Gulf Coast State Col­lege is a pub­lic col­lege and belongs to the Flori­da Col­lege Sys­tem. The school offers asso­ci­ate’s and bach­e­lor’s degrees in areas of study that include dig­i­tal media, orga­ni­za­tion­al man­age­ment, tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment, nurs­ing, and more. It has 75 asso­ciate degree trans­fer track pro­grams, 27 sci­ence pro­grams, and 44 cer­tifi­cate programs.

Degree: BAS in Tech­nol­o­gy Management

BAS in Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment — Gulf Coast State College

3. Florida State College at Jacksonville

The BAS in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment degree at Flori­da State Col­lege at Jack­sonville has a mis­sion to devel­op and men­tor stu­dents into indi­vid­u­als that can man­age and super­vise IT employ­ees and projects with effec­tive com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills and project plan­ning. Stu­dents learn about the lat­est tech­nolo­gies that are used in orga­ni­za­tions and learn about the man­age­r­i­al duties that are part of the job title. Some of the cours­es includ­ed in the cur­ricu­lum are: busi­ness law and ethics, orga­ni­za­tion­al behav­ior, busi­ness writ­ing, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy plan­ning, net­work fun­da­men­tals, inter­net pro­gram­ming, hard­ware con­fig­u­ra­tion and more.

Flori­da State Col­lege at Jack­sonville (FSCJ) is a pub­lic col­lege and part of the Flori­da Col­lege Sys­tem. It’s clas­si­fied as a state col­lege which enables it to offer bach­e­lor degrees as well as asso­ci­ate’s degrees. Edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams focus on con­tin­u­ing and voca­tion­al edu­ca­tion along­side tra­di­tion­al degree pro­grams. The ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in the NJCAA Region 8, Mid-Flori­da Conference.

Degree: BAS in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Management

BAS in Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment — Flori­da State Col­lege at Jacksonville

4. University of Texas at Tyler

Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Tyler offers a BS in Indus­tri­al Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment degree pro­gram that trains stu­dents to become effec­tive man­agers in the indus­tri­al and man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­nol­o­gy fields. The degree pre­pares stu­dents to work in roles that include safe­ty man­ag­er, project engi­neer, plant man­ag­er, pro­duc­tion super­vi­sor, pro­cure­ment man­ag­er, and any oth­er posi­tion that com­bines man­age­r­i­al duties and industrial/manufacturing skills. Stu­dents are taught how to work with CAD sys­tems, CNC milling machines, met­al lath­es along with oth­er man­u­fac­tur­ing tools that they might use over the course of their career as well as learn­ing core skills and func­tions of a man­age­r­i­al role.

Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Tyler (UT Tyler) is a pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty with a strong empha­sis in doc­tor­al research, and is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas Sys­tem. The school enrolls around 10,000 stu­dents each aca­d­e­m­ic year. It offers over 80 under­grad­u­ate, grad­u­ate and doc­tor­al degree pro­grams offered both on-cam­pus and online. UT Tyler has an aver­age stu­dent-fac­ul­ty ratio of 19:1 to pro­vide stu­dents with per­son­al­ized edu­ca­tion and increase a stu­den­t’s chance of suc­cess in their careers. The school’s ath­let­ics teams par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion II in the Lone Star Conference.

Degree: BS in Indus­tri­al Tech­nol­o­gy Management

Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Tyler BS in Indus­tri­al Tech­nol­o­gy Management

5. University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff

Uni­ver­si­ty of Arkansas at Pine Bluff offers a BS in Indus­tri­al Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment and Applied Engi­neer­ing degree pro­gram that pre­pares tech­ni­cal and tech­ni­cal man­age­ment-ori­ent­ed stu­dents to work in edu­ca­tion, indus­try, gov­ern­ment, and busi­ness. Class top­ics in the pro­gram include mate­r­i­al and pro­duc­tion process­es, indus­tri­al man­age­ment, human rela­tions, prin­ci­ples of dis­tri­b­u­tion, automa­tion and elec­tron­ics, and more. The objec­tives of the pro­gram are to teach a gen­er­al over­all under­stand­ing of indus­try in a nation­al and glob­al envi­ron­ment and the skills need­ed to find employ­ment in a man­age­r­i­al role in the indus­tri­al tech­nol­o­gy field.

Uni­ver­si­ty of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) is a pub­lic his­tor­i­cal­ly black uni­ver­si­ty that’s part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Arkansas Sys­tem and fea­tures a space-grant affil­i­a­tion. The school enrolls an aver­age of 2,500 stu­dents each aca­d­e­m­ic year and offers 34 under­grad­u­ate degrees in 25 majors. Ath­let­ic teams at UAPB par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I — South­west­ern Ath­let­ic Conference.

Degree: BS in Indus­tri­al Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment and Applied Engineering

Uni­ver­si­ty of Arkansas at Pine Bluff BS in Indus­tri­al Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment and Applied Engineering

6. State College of Florida — Manatee-Sarasota

The BAS in Super­vi­sion and Man­age­ment — Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment pro­gram at State Col­lege of Flori­da — Man­a­tee-Sara­so­ta is a trans­fer pro­gram that’s designed for stu­dents with an asso­ci­ate’s of art or sci­ence degree. It pre­pares stu­dents for man­age­ment and super­vi­so­ry roles in the pub­lic, pri­vate and non­prof­it sec­tors of employ­ment. The pro­gram offers three con­cen­tra­tions that include Super­vi­sion and Man­age­ment, Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness and Trade or Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment. Stu­dents will learn how to han­dle man­age­ment duties along with learn­ing how to man­age and lead an IT depart­ment. Class­es are offered both online and on-campus.

State Col­lege of Flori­da, Man­a­tee-Sara­so­ta (SCF) is a pub­lic col­lege and is part of the Flori­da Col­lege sys­tem. It has a state col­lege des­ig­na­tion due to its offer­ing bach­e­lor’s degrees along with asso­ciates degrees. The school has cam­pus­es in Man­a­tee and Sara­so­ta coun­ties. SCF is a char­ter mem­ber of the Man­u­fac­tur­ing Insti­tute’s M‑List due to its excel­lent pro­gram for man­u­fac­tur­ing edu­ca­tion. Its nurs­ing pro­gram has one of the high­est cer­ti­fi­ca­tion rates for grad­u­ates in the state and a near 100% licens­ing rate among grad­u­ates from the health and well­ness programs.

Degree: BAS in Super­vi­sion and Man­age­ment — Tech­nol­o­gy Management

BAS in Super­vi­sion and Man­age­ment — Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment — State Col­lege of Flori­da — Manatee-Sarasota

7. Florida Atlantic University

Flori­da Atlantic Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BSBA in Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems pro­gram that focus­es on teach­ing stu­dents how to bring man­age­r­i­al skills to the IT depart­ment. Stu­dents learn how to man­age the IT depart­ment through lead­ing staff and main­tain­ing sys­tems oper­a­tions. Upon com­ple­tion of the pro­gram, a stu­dent will have the nec­es­sary skills to han­dle depart­ment finances, work on exist­ing sys­tems, plan and build new IT sys­tems, how to use infor­ma­tion gen­er­at­ed by data min­ing, and gain pro­fi­cien­cy in major soft­ware suites used in IT frame­works. An intern­ship is offered as part of the program.

Flori­da Atlantic Uni­ver­si­ty (FAU) is a pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty with a space-grant affil­i­a­tion and is part of the State Uni­ver­si­ty Sys­tem of Flori­da. The school enrolls almost 31,000 stu­dents each aca­d­e­m­ic year in pur­suit of one of the 180 bach­e­lor’s, mas­ter’s, and doc­tor­al degrees. Col­leges at FAU include Sci­ence, Med­i­cine, Nurs­ing, Design and Social Inquiry, Busi­ness, Edu­ca­tion, Com­put­er Sci­ence, Engi­neer­ing, and more. Ath­let­ics teams at the school par­tic­i­pate in the NCAA Divi­sion I — C‑USA conference.

Degree: BSBA in Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Systems

Flori­da Atlantic Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BSBA in Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems program

8. Texas A&M University-Commerce

The BS in Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment degree at Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty-Com­merce com­bines key method­olo­gies in STEM and busi­ness so stu­dents can apply to a wide range of employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties in Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment. Stu­dents learn how to solve engi­neer­ing prob­lems from a man­age­r­i­al view­point by using their abil­i­ty to ana­lyze costs and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of a project. The afford­able tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment pro­gram also teach­es stu­dents how to improve their com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills and how to lead a team in order to be effec­tive in their role as a manager.

Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty Com­merce is a pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ty and is part of the Texas pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty sys­tem. The school aver­ages about 12,000 stu­dents each aca­d­e­m­ic year in under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate degree stud­ies. There are a total of five aca­d­e­m­ic col­leges that offer over 100 degrees in Edu­ca­tion and Human Ser­vices, Busi­ness, Human­i­ties, Social Sci­ences and Arts, Sci­ence and Engi­neer­ing, and Agri­cul­tur­al Sci­ences and Nat­ur­al Resources.

Degree: BS in Tech­nol­o­gy Management

BS in Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment — Texas A&M University-Commerce

9. Lamar University

Lamar Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BBA in Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems pro­gram designed to pre­pare stu­dents to man­age IT work­ers and work with them to cre­ate, man­age and main­tain IT sys­tems. The afford­able tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment degree teach­es stu­dents how to apply tech­nol­o­gy to iden­ti­fy and solve busi­ness prob­lems that include account­ing, mar­ket­ing, finance and man­age­ment. Some of the class­es in the pro­gram include e‑commerce design and devel­op­ment, Java devel­op­ment, Visu­al Basic pro­gram­ming, and enter­prise resource plan­ning. Upon grad­u­a­tion, a stu­dent will have the knowl­edge and skills to suc­cess­ful­ly man­age the infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy and sys­tems depart­ment of an orga­ni­za­tion or enterprise.

Lamar Uni­ver­si­ty (LU) is a pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty with a space-grant affil­i­a­tion and is part of the Texas State Uni­ver­si­ty Sys­tem. The school enrolls an aver­age of 15,000 stu­dents each aca­d­e­m­ic year. Lamar Uni­ver­si­ty offers over 100 degree options via five under­grad­u­ate col­leges, one grad­u­ate col­lege and an hon­ors col­lege. The school’s ath­let­ics team par­tic­i­pate in NCAA Divi­sion I for var­si­ty sports.

Degree: BBA in Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Systems

Lamar Uni­ver­si­ty BBA in Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems program

10. University of Southern Maine

The BS in Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment pro­gram at Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Maine is designed to teach stu­dents how to become effec­tive tech­nol­o­gy man­agers in a vari­ety of indus­tri­al and man­u­fac­tur­ing employ­ment set­tings. The afford­able tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment pro­gram has four con­cen­tra­tions that include Indus­tri­al Man­age­ment, Infor­ma­tion and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Tech­nol­o­gy, Elec­tro-Mechan­i­cal Sys­tems, and Pre­ci­sion Man­u­fac­tur­ing. The Indus­tri­al Man­age­ment con­cen­tra­tion is a “gen­er­al­ist” man­age­ment cur­ricu­lum while the remain­ing con­cen­tra­tions focus on a spe­cif­ic area of tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment tech­niques and disciplines.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Maine (USM) is a pub­lic uni­ver­si­ty with mul­ti­ple cam­pus­es in the state of Maine. The school offers bach­e­lor’s, mas­ter’s, and doc­tor­al degrees in pub­lic pol­i­cy and school psy­chol­o­gy. Some of the pro­grams include Arts and Human­i­ties, Social and Behav­ioral Stud­ies, Nat­ur­al and Applied Sci­ences, and Lead­er­ship and Orga­ni­za­tion­al Stud­ies. Its ath­let­ics teams com­pete at the NCAA Divi­sion III level.

Degree: BS in Tech­nol­o­gy Management

BS in Tech­nol­o­gy Man­age­ment — Uni­ver­si­ty of South­ern Maine

What Kinds of Technology Management Specializations are There?

Tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment is just one term for many types of spe­cial­iza­tions. Often the term itself will have a mod­i­fi­er to indi­cate the spe­cial­iza­tion. Typ­i­cal­ly, that mod­i­fi­er will denote the indus­try or type of tech­nol­o­gy involved in the edu­ca­tion or the job duties of the per­son that holds the title. For exam­ple, some types of tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment can include:

• Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy Management
• Health­care Tech­nol­o­gy Management
• Engi­neer­ing Tech­nol­o­gy Management
• Busi­ness Tech­nol­o­gy Management
• Mar­ket­ing Tech­nol­o­gy Management

The dif­fer­ences between the dif­fer­ent kinds of tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment will have to do with spe­cial­iza­tion through edu­ca­tion, spe­cial­iza­tion through job duties, or spe­cial­iza­tion through cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. While all the dif­fer­ent kinds of tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment can stem from a tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment degree, the dif­fer­ent types of tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment can mean wild­ly dif­fer­ent job duties, salaries, career tra­jec­to­ries, and out­looks. How­ev­er, this all points to the sheer amount of ver­sa­til­i­ty that comes with a tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment degree.

The dif­fer­ent kinds of tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment also mean that grad­u­ates can always find a place to fit in, a place to grow, or a place where they can learn new skills and diver­si­fy their tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment tal­ents. One thing appli­cants should keep in mind is that when they’re job hunt­ing or seek­ing a career change, they should expand their search to include the var­i­ous types of tech­nol­o­gy management.

Will a Technology Management Certification Help My Career?

A tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion can help, but it’s not always nec­es­sary to advance in a tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment career. In many cas­es, a tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion can help peo­ple who already have an under­grad­u­ate degree to make a career change to the tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment field. Nev­er­the­less, hav­ing the cre­den­tial of cer­ti­fied tech­nol­o­gy man­ag­er can cer­tain­ly help some­one stand out from a crowd that only have their degree.

Note that some indus­tries, com­pa­nies, or oth­er employ­ers may require tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of a spe­cif­ic type while some­one works for them or before some­one can take on cer­tain duties. Some orga­ni­za­tions may have a cul­ture, job duties, or pro­pri­etary con­cerns that require their appli­cants to have cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. There are also some gen­er­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that can help add to someone’s knowl­edge, resume, and expertise.

Spe­cial­iza­tions also tend to require cer­tain types of tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. For exam­ple, work­ing as a tech­nol­o­gy man­ag­er for a health­care orga­ni­za­tion may require the appli­cant to prove that he or she under­stands the role tech­nol­o­gy plays not just in health­care broad­ly, but in that spe­cif­ic orga­ni­za­tion, which can require the appli­cant to seek cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. As with most dis­ci­plines, it nev­er hurts to have cer­ti­fi­ca­tions to show the appli­cant takes their cho­sen pro­fes­sion seri­ous­ly and is will­ing to seek con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion in their cho­sen field.

How Much Can I Make with a Technology Management Degree?

Man­age­ment of tech­nol­o­gy salary will depend on the indus­try, employ­er, expe­ri­ence, and job title. When look­ing at man­age­ment of tech­nol­o­gy salary, job seek­ers should look to the poten­tial salaries earned by oth­er types of tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment as well. Where PayScale shows an aver­age salary of ~$99k as a tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment degree salary, it shows $88.5k for an IT man­ag­er, and ~$89k for project man­agers in IT.

Loca­tion and employ­er can great­ly change the tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment salary, so appli­cants would do well to not just look at the aver­ages in the coun­try. Instead, they should nar­row down their search­es to where they would like to work or want to work. Drilling down to a very niche or spe­cial­ized type of man­age­ment of tech­nol­o­gy salary can also help appli­cants shine a light on what they stand to make with a tech­nol­o­gy man­age­ment degree. In most cas­es, the out­look for this degree type is a good one with the poten­tial for incred­i­ble growth.

The inter­net is an incred­i­ble resource, but so are the schools and pro­grams them­selves. Many col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties list resources to help poten­tial appli­cants afford the pro­grams they offer. Speak­ing to a real per­son at a poten­tial school can often help appli­cants find a lot of resources and finan­cial pro­grams they would nev­er have known about otherwise.

Relat­ed Rankings: 

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Tech­nol­o­gy Management

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Tech­nol­o­gy Management

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Tech­nol­o­gy Management

15 Best Online Train­ing and Devel­op­ment Programs

15 Best Engi­neer­ing Man­age­ment Bach­e­lor Degree Online