 |
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
EDUCATION-
November 2002 by Claude Hammond Sidebar- More than ever, Kentuckians in the realm of business leadership are pursuing an advanced degree to help hone their professional skills. A dozen colleges and universities in the Bluegrass State offer Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree programs, making it an accessible goal throughout the Commonwealth. “What does an MBA offer?” said Dr. Wally Ferrier, director of the MBA program at the University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business and Economics. “Number one is choice and flexibility in terms of career options. “Number two should be obvious. That’s the additional value added in terms of the MBA student’s business toolkit. Those are the two most important things. “Thirdly, the MBA ‘certifies’ you as an emerging executive and should add significantly to one’s salary equation.” At the University of Kentucky, about half of the Gatton School’s 220 MBA students have two to four years’ professional experience and are in an early stage of their career. The other half could be called mid-career students, having eight to 12 years’ experience in business or government. “Many companies encourage their employees to get their MBA,” Ferrier said. Eighty to 85 percent of our students get tuition assistance from their companies. Key individuals in the company especially get encouraged to do this.” The Commonwealth’s state universities offer a variety of MBA programs, with Morehead State University being the first institution offering Kentucky’s first fully online degree. With 500 students, it is the largest MBA program in the state. A number of private colleges and universities also offer MBA programs. Founded in 2000, Campbellsville University has the youngest such program in the state. In Northern Kentucky, Thomas More College’s graduate business program has been growing strong for six years. “We’ve offered the MBA degree since 1996,” said Vicki Culbreth, the program’s director of enrollment. “Enrollment initially grew at a high pace and we’ve maintained it now into our seventh year of operation. People are constantly enrolling and constantly graduating. It takes a minimum of 21 months to get the MBA here. We require students to be in class one night a week and work with a study group one night a week.” According to Culbreth, there are distinct advantages to utilizing a private institution to earn one’s MBA. “It’s really our format that appeals to students,” she said. “It allows working people to continue their commitments to their work, families and communities. So, we have full-time students who are also full-time employees. “Another advantage is the attention our students get from instructors. We cap classes at 22 students and have no seminar-style classes. Students need to come prepared because their faculty member’s going to know if they’re prepared or not.”
“We’ve offered the program since Fall, 1999,” said Keith Moore, MBA program director. “We basically listen to our market. We do not have a residency requirement and our faculty can administer proctored exams. “As a result, while 78 percent of our students are in Kentucky, we also have students in the Midwest and West. The main task they have is to find a suitable proctor at a local college or university. We even have a cluster of four students studying for their MBAs in Honduras.” With 600 students, the MBA program at the University of Louisville is Kentucky’s largest. “About 400 of those students are local,” said Dolores Calebs, an administrator in the program. “We also have MBA programs available in Singapore, Athens and Panama. For students wanting careers in international business, this is an ideal opportunity.” Flexibility has proven to be an important feature of MBA programs in the Commonwealth. One institution, Sullivan University, maintains campuses in both Louisville and Lexington, each of which offers instruction for an accredited MBA degree. According to Dr. Jeff Johnson, dean of Sullivan’s graduate school, the university offers both accelerated and online instruction for the advanced degree. “We have to be there for our students,” he said. “Our flexibility helps our student maximize his or her productivity in what is often a very busy professional life.” In the rapidly growing Greater Cincinnati area, the number of students pursuing MBAs has increased dramatically at Northern Kentucky University. “Enrollment in our MBA program has doubled in the past three years,” said Dr. Tom Cate, program director. “The word’s getting out about us. We’re finding that students and degree recipients are going out and selling the program for us.” The MBA program at NKU offers conventional instruction to about 250 students, of whom about 20 percent are within two years of having received their bachelor’s degree. “We have a lot of mid-career people,” Cate said. “The average age of our MBA students is 31 to 33 years old. We’re also drawing a number of students from across the river, primarily because of our quality of instruction and the competitive cost of tuition. “We’re
in the business of upgrading people’s skills so that they become
better managers. That’s why they’re here.” Claude Hammond
is editorial director for The Lane Report. Click
here to see a list of Kentucky's MBA Programs |
|
|
|
Copyright 1996-2002, by Kentucky Business Online. All rights reserved. Editorial content
is copyright 2002, Lane Communications Group The Lane Report is a trademark of Lane Communications Group. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
Morehead
State University’s online program offers students flexibility that
residential programs do not.