LITTLE ROCK — The Department of Construction Management and Civil and Construction Engineering at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock was approved Monday to offer two new degree programs in architectural and construction engineering and a Master of Science degree in construction management.

Kelley Bass, assistant dean for external affairs with the College of Engineering and Information Technology at UALR, said the program did not take long to put into action.

"It took less than a year to get it up and running," Bass said. "We have to get it approved internally, then the board of trustees at the University of Arkansas has to approve it and then [the Arkansas Department of Higher Education] approves it, and that's what happened Monday."

Bass said UALR is the only public university in the state to offer these construction programs.

Nickolas Jovanovic, associate professor in the Department of Systems Engineering at UALR, was the key player in making the construction engineering degree a possibility, and Mike Tramel, chair of the Department of Construction Management and Civil and Construction Engineering, was the "mastermind" behind the Master of Science program, Bass said.

The construction management degree first started at UALR in 1999, and in 2010 the university started offering a Bachelor of Science in civil and construction engineering, Bass said.

Bass said the local construction industry has benefited from this program and has hired almost all of the graduates.

"These degrees will be accredited," Bass said. "Once approved, all of the construction graduates can qualify to get their professional engineering license and can potentially do both [architectural and civil engineering]."