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CATEGORY - PART-TIME/EXECUTIVE MBA

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Wall Street Journal Releases First EMBA Ranking

Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management snagged the top spot, followed by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as number two in the Wall Street Journal’s first survey of executive MBA programs, released yesterday.

Partnering with the Management Research Group of Portland, Maine, and tapping the expertise of Journal editor Jennifer Merritt, who formerly headed up BusinessWeek’s business school rankings, the Journal has officially entered the EMBA ranking game.

The result of extensive surveys with current students, recent grads, and human-resources and executive-development managers at companies across 23 industries, the ranking reveals the top 25 schools around the globe that provide “the rigor needed to build tomorrow’s corporate leaders and C-suite executives,” according to the Journal.

Rounding out the top five programs were the Thunderbird School of Global Management at number three, the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business at number four; and the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School at number five.

To reach its conclusions, the Journal took into account survey scores from students and corporations of 73 EMBA programs at 53 business schools across nine countries. In addition to the student and corporate scores, the rankings also measured what employers wanted out of programs and how well students felt their programs developed those skills.

To compile the final rankings, student and corporate ratings were weighted 40 percent each, and the skills ratings were weighted 20 percent. 

Kellogg and Wharton have among the largest EMBA programs, with 843 candidates currently enrolled in the seven Kellogg programs and with 406 students currently enrolled in Wharton’s two programs. Both schools’ programs got high marks from companies – nearly double their closest competitors – which put them squarely in the lead despite lower scores from students.

That’s because corporate scores varied the most – the two leaders far outpaced those in the middle of the pack. In contrast, student scores were closer in range. So even though Wharton came in at number 15 in terms of student ratings, it was still within striking distance of the leading schools’ scores.

That said, for the number one school in the student ranking, the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, a particularly strong student score is what guaranteed it a place in the top five.

In addition to determining how the various schools measured up to one another, the Journal rankings also revealed interesting information about what students are looking for in EMBA programs overall. Among the key findings:

• School reputation is the top consideration for students choosing which program to attend, as noted by 51 percent of student respondents.
• Quality faculty is a key factor, with 78 percent of students reporting that they considered their school because of its distinguished faculty.
• Students are drawn to EMBA programs because they offer a way to develop leadership skills without losing more than a few days a month in the office and because what they learn in school can be immediately applied on the job. “Learn on Friday and Saturday, apply on Monday,” is how one respondent put it.
• Cost was relatively unimportant whether or not companies helped pay the bill. Program tuition ranged from $65,000 to $160,000; nearly 34 percent of students said they paid their own way, 30 percent said their employers paid the entire bill, and 13 percent said their companies paid at least half. (Average out-of-pocket expense among respondents was $45,000.)
• Distance is not a deterrent for the right program. While the majority of students (64 percent) traveled less than 50 miles one way, 7 percent commuted up to 200 miles and nearly 9 percent schlepped a whopping 1,000 miles or more one way.
• With an EMBA comes a bonus or promotion or both. Of those surveyed, 24 percent report having been given both a raise and promotion since they started classes and another 30 percent expect both in the next year.

Companies, meanwhile, have their own set of expectations. Quick return on investment topped the list, with 26 percent of companies saying they expect to see management and leadership skills put to use immediately, and an equal percentage expect them to be put to use within a year of graduation. Human-resource-development managers – 64 percent of them – view EMBA programs as a means of holding onto talent. And 55 percent of company respondents called the EMBA a critical business investment.

Despite the high marks for many programs, the rankings suggest that there’s still room for improvement. Companies sometimes complain that students return from EMBA programs seeking to solve business problems like academic exercises – without practical sense. Students complained about programs that rely too heavily on distance technology that doesn’t always work well or enhance the learning process.

Finally, more flexibility was called for by many students, for whom program scheduling can prove too difficult work into an existing work routine or for whom the 15 hours or more of study per week is too much to carry.

To view the complete rankings, click here. To read more about the methodology the Journal employed to compile its rankings, click here.

Monday, September 22, 2008

NYU Stern Launches Specialized MBA in Banking and Financial Institutions

As career services offices at business schools everywhere are scrambling to help current students and alums impacted by the recent crisis on Wall Street, schools are also rethinking the way they approach teaching about banking and finance.

In an announcement that preceded Monday’s meltdown by a couple of weeks, in fact, New York University’s Stern School of Business revealed that the wheels are already in motion there to create a new executive MBA program, in partnership with the Swiss Finance Institute, designed specifically to tackle future challenges presented by the global financial system.

“As researchers and educators, we must promote a greater understanding of the risks and opportunities confronting our financial institutions,” Thomas Cooley, dean of NYU Stern School of Business, said in a statement announcing the new program. .

The specialized Executive MBA in Banking and Financial Institutions Management will debut in August 2009. Organized into five intensive residential modules of two to three weeks each, the program is designed to be highly compatible with the busy work schedules of mid-career executives and will feature a faculty stacked with global expertise in banking and finance.

The program’s different modules will take place in New York, Zurich and Singapore and extend over 18 months. They will feature an integrated curriculum combining banking and finance expertise with the key components of a top-level MBA program.

“We are proud to partner with Stern in this ambitious and innovative new program,” said Swiss Finance Institute Managing Director Prof Jean-Pierre Danthine in a statement.

Supported by Swiss banks and universities and the Swiss Stock Exchange and Federal Government, the institute supports advanced research in banking and finance. It will host its annual meeting on November 18th in Geneva, where roundtable discussions will focus on finance in the wake of the credit crisis.

To learn more about NYU Stern’s new finance and banking executive MBA, click here. To learn more about the Swiss Finance Institute, click here.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business Takes Executive Education Online

To meet growing demand for its executive education program, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business will unveil an entirely new campus next week – a virtual one in the Internet-based 3D world Second Life. 

The new campus will bear a striking resemblance to buildings on the IU Bloomington campus, minus walls, stairs and other constraints found in the real world.

“That’s because Second Life doesn’t have the same constraints as the real world, which we feel facilitates learning,” said Kelley Executive Partners (KEP) Executive Director John Cady. “Students have to reassess all of their assumptions in Second Life, and applying that mindset to the real world can help them view business questions anew as well,” he continued.

Kelley’s creation of a virtual campus reflects the fact that real-world businesses are taking a new view on business questions, too. Specifically, they are exploring online solutions for employee collaboration and education as a means of cutting travel costs and lost productivity due to time out of the office. And according to researchers in online education and collaboration, virtual worlds make online learning more engaging and immersive – and, by extension, more effective. 

The Kelley School has emerged as a pioneer in the field of online learning, debuting its online MBA program, Kelley Direct, in 1999.

Now, KEP has tapped the online education expertise of Kelley Direct in designing its own online offerings. KEP will launch its virtual campus in a half-day event next Monday, September 15th. The debut event will include expert speakers and panel discussions on virtual collaboration, tours of the new virtual campus and a Second Life boat race designed to illustrate how teams can work collaboratively using online immersive technology to jointly solve problems. 

“In today’s academic and business environments, more often than not, individuals and teams are collaborating across boundaries – boundaries of distance, time, language and culture in all its forms,” said Anne Massey, a professor in Kelley’s Department of Operations and Decision Technologies and a Dean’s Research Professor for Information Systems, in a statement about the new virtual campus. “Today, as the adoption of Web 2.0 and 3D virtual worlds accelerates, new possibilities for overcoming boundaries are emerging,” she continued.

Massey will serve as one of Monday’s conference panelists. Other speakers will include Cady, Ken Hudson, managing director of the Virtual World Design Center at Loyalist College in Canada; David Levin, IBM TJ Watson Research Center; Christian Renaud, chief executive officer of Technology Intelligence Group; Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins, co-author, Second Life for Dummies; and Carolyn Wiethoff, clinical associate professor of management and entrepreneurship in the Kelley School.

To learn more about Monday’s campus unveiling, including information on how to take part, click here.

Clear Admit in the Wall Street Journal!

The Wall Street Journal’s Work & Family columnist Sue Shellenbarger recently interviewed Clear Admit’s Graham Richmond to learn more about part-time management education offerings in the New York area.  Richmond is quoted in a response that Shellenbarger featured in her mailbag column this week:

“….almost every MBA program in the New York area offers a part-time on-campus option, says Graham Richmond, chief executive of Clear Admit, an MBA admissions counseling firm in Philadelphia.  New York University’s Stern School of Business has a top-tier part-time program that offers evening and weekend classes, on campuses in New York City and near Westchester, Mr. Richmond says.  Fordham University’s graduate business school offers a part-time MBA that can be completed on its campus near Westchester, also with evening and Saturday classes.  And Iona College’s Hagan School of Business in New Rochelle, N.Y., offers classes on weeknights and Saturdays.  All of these programs, Mr. Richmond adds, typically take about two to three years to complete.”

The full text of the article can be found in Wednewsday’s Wall Street Journal on page D10 or online here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122099952366916821.html?mod=Work-Family

Over the past seven years, Clear Admit has consistently been featured in the popular press.  To see other press excerpts, podcasts and chat transcripts from US News, BusinessWeek, the Economist and more, be sure to visit the Clear Admit press page: http://www.clearadmit.com/press

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

London Business School and Columbia Business School Launch New Global Asia EMBA

Building on their existing partnership, London Business School (LBS) and Columbia Business School (CBS) have announced a new addition to their top-ranked EMBA-Global program. With the launch of EMBA-Global Asia, the two schools will partner with the University of Hong Kong to create the first program offering business education and networking opportunities that link the global financial hubs of Hong Kong, London and New York.

As a portal to mainland China, Hong Kong seemed a natural place for expansion of the EMBA-Global program. And the University of Hong Kong, too, seemed the perfect partner, given its respected international reputation, strong academic programs and state-of-the-art facilities.

The ideal candidates for this new EMBA-Global Asia program are high-potential, globally-focused executives and managers, primarily based in Asia, who are passionate about the opportunities offered by Asia’s rapid economic development.

The 20-month course will include intensive MBA classes taught in New York, London, Hong Kong and Shanghai, as well as additional study in other international regions. Teaching will be divided equally among faculty from each of the three partner schools.

Students who complete the program will receive a joint MBA degree awarded by Columbia University, London Business School, and the University of Hong Kong – complete with access to the alumni networks of all three schools.

The inaugural class, made up of approximately 50 students, will begin in May 2009.

For more information, visit www.emba-global.com.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

UCLA Anderson, Indian School of Business Partner to Launch New EMBA Program in Finance Engineering

Beginning this July, the UCLA Anderson School of Management, together with the Indian School of Business (ISB), will launch a new executive program built around financial engineering. The six-month program, the first of its kind, is designed to help financial experts who manage large assets for individuals and companies better harness financial engineering skills in their work. 

“The level of financial and technical savvy required by organizations in today’s global financial markets has accelerated the demand for well-trained financial engineers,” UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian said in a statement announcing the new program. “The ISB-UCLA Anderson partnership presents a valuable opportunity to maximize the strengths and academic prominence of both schools,” she continued. 

The Indian finance market continues to grow at a very rapid pace, and with it grows the need for managers trained to anticipate and solve the issues they confront in asset management. The new ISB-UCLA Anderson executive program, which will be quantitatively oriented than traditional MBA programs, will be taught by leading experts and world-renowned finance faculty from both schools. The program’s supervisors, including two former American Finance Association presidents, are all leaders in their field.

The program was borne out of a series of meetings with corporate finance leaders, financial experts and policy makers, who together expressed the need for finance professionals to better understand India’s evolution and its impact on the world economy.

It will consist of four one-week teaching modules delivered once a month and will be held at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India, from July through December. The modules are core concepts, quantitative asset management, financial risk management and security research, analysis and valuation.

The first module, which includes understanding the fundamental principles of financial engineering, will be mandatory for all participants. The remaining three modules are options, giving students to choose one or more of the other subjects according to their professional interests. In the last two months of the program, students will work on projects with supervision by ISB and UCLA Anderson faculty members.

“I am delighted with the partnership of the ISB with UCLA Anderson,” said Indian School of Business Dean M Rammohan Rao in a statement. “This program will be extremely beneficial to finance professionals and will equip them with an accurate and precise knowledge of up-to-date financial economics and financial practice,” he added.

To learn more about the new executive program in financial engineering, click here.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

European B-Schools Heat Up as Economy Slows

European business schools have received top billing in the past week in both BusinessWeek and the Wall Street Journal, with both publications reporting increased application volume at schools across the region.

According to the Journal piece, published Friday, business schools across Europe, which have seen application volume rise steadily in recent years, expect a further surge amid current global economic instability. This would follow the usual pattern of past slowdowns, when would-be analysts and managers looked toward graduate business programs as a place to ride out market uncertainty.  

Executive education programs, though, could suffer a hit, according to the Journal, as companies previously happy to fund continuing education for their employees are forced to slash budgets.

The Journal piece goes on to say that for good or bad, the state of the economy is what has people talking on European campuses. “It’s very much the hot topic at the moment in business schools,” Jeanette Purcell, chief executive of London-based Association of MBAs, a consortium of 145 business schools around the world, told the Journal.

For many, the focus is on recruitment trends. According to the Journal, recruitment of new MBAs in the finance sector has already slowed, and both students and faculty are fearing drop-offs in other sectors as well. Administrators are saying that graduates from European programs are increasingly looking for jobs in the stronger Asian economies, the Journal reports.

Professors, meanwhile, see many of the recent stories in the financial press as perfect fodder for classroom lessons and discussion. From the international movement of bad debt to the rouge trader blamed for billions in losses at French bank Société Générale, the crises have been “helpful from a teaching point of view,” Simon Taylor, a finance lecturer at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School, told the Journal.

Greater Employer Demand for International Experience, Bargain Prices
An article in BusinessWeek on Thursday also turned the focus on European business schools, citing curriculum improvements, growing corporate demand for international experience and shorter, cheaper programs as factors drawing business school applicants in ever greater numbers toward European business schools.

According to the BW report, applications to INSEAD, the French business school with campuses in Fontainebleau and Singapore, jumped 20 percent in the past year, and American student enrollment grew 24 percent over 2007, to 73 students. Barcelona’s IESE had 32 percent more applications from the U.S. and expects to enroll 35 Americans in the next class – a 60 percent increase. ESADE, also based in Barcelona, has received an overwhelming onslaught of inquiries from American applicants as well, BW continued.

Speaking to BW, INSEAD Dean Frank Brown suggested that more and more young people recognize the value of an MBA, but fewer want to devote two years – the length of most U.S. programs – to earning one. Others credit the U.S. recession as a contributing factor to higher European B-school applicant volume, BW reports.

The dollar’s week performance against the euro raises the cost of European programs for U.S. students, but even so, tuition at schools overseas represents a bargain. BW reports that the average tuition at the top 10 European schools is less than $73,000, vs. $86,600 at Harvard Business School, and about $95,000 at Wharton.

Another draw for American students, according to BW, is the European schools’ effort to enhance their focus on issues of social justice. Responding to student demand, several top European schools have added a wealth of new courses on corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship and doing business in developing countries, as well as founding new centers devoted to these and other issues.

Finally, according to BW, European business programs on average are smaller and more diverse than their American counterparts. Compared to Harvard and Wharton, whose MBA classes are 63 and 55 percent American, respectively, European schools are much more international. French students make up just 14 percent of the MBA class at France’s Paris HEC and Brit’s comprise a mere 5 percent of Oxford’s MBA class.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Church Leaders, School Principals, Football Players: B-School Welcomes All

Seems it’s not just economics majors heading toward MBA programs these days. In recent posts we’ve talked about the new Harvard 2+2 program, designed by HBS to draw talented college students who might otherwise veer toward law or public policy. On the other end of the spectrum, we’re also spotting the emergence of new executive MBA programs targeting professionals in fields not traditionally associated with business – fields as diverse as professional football, religion and education.

The NFL’s MBA
Forbes.com last month ran an article about football players who are studying business while not on the playing field. Partnering with top business schools, the National Football League started the NFL Business Management and Entrepreneurial Program, designed to help professional football players develop skills that will help ensure financial stability once their playing days are behind them.

Launched three years ago, the NFL program has grown from 66 players at two of the top business schools in the U.S. to 118 players at four. Participating schools offer executive education in their respective areas of expertise.

Harvard’s course offerings include entrepreneurial opportunities and business management; Kellogg, developing and selling a brand and evaluating franchise opportunities; Stanford, evaluating business opportunities in the sports industry; and Wharton, financial analysis, real-estate development, negotiations.

According to Forbes.com, the players undergo a rigorous application process that involves demonstrating their level of education, professional business experience, interest in starting, owning or managing a business and leadership and community involvement.

“We wanted to make sure players selected themselves well and were serious about it,” Chris Henry, director of NFL player development and founder of the program, told Forbes.com. “They have to be prepared to compete with others who have been out in the working world,” he added.

Preaching Management to Religious Leaders
The Duke University Divinity School, in partnership with the Fuqua School of Business, has launched a new program designed to help Christian leaders apply wise business practices to their theological work to meet real-world challenges, according to a recent report in the Graduate Management Admissions Council’s (GMAC) Deans Digest.

A generous $14 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. will help establish the program, which will provide teaching, coaching and other resources for religious leaders. Participants in the program will range from bishops and executive directors of denominations to senior leaders of seminaries and other organizations that serve congregations.

“This new project is an exciting and innovative step for Duke Divinity School and Duke University,” Duke University President Richard Brodhead said in a statement announcing the initiative. “It builds on distinctive strengths at Duke and exemplifies the university’s special interest in not only developing new knowledge but also applying that knowledge broadly in the service of society,” he continued.

The initiative will feature a range of programs that focus on leading and managing Christian institutions; some will be offered on an open-application basis and others will be customized for specific groups.

Rice MBA Program for Principals
In partnership with educational organizations Teach for America and Houston A+ Challenge, the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University recently launched the Rice Education Entrepreneurship Programs, designed to develop leadership and business skills among principals in K-12 schools, GMAC’s Dean Digest reports.

The Rice Educational Entrepreneurship Programs are designed to attract top educational talent from throughout the U.S. to help strengthen Houston-area public schools, according to a Business Wire release. 

“The K-12 school system at large in the Houston community calls for transformational thought leadership in its management ranks that can greatly improve the quality of education for the community for the long term,” William Glick, dean of Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Management, told Business Wire.

The initiative, funded by a $7.2 million grant from the Houston Endowment, includes three new academic tracts designed to develop leadership and business skills among principals in K-12 schools. Among the new programs is a graduate management degree, the Rice MBA for Professionals for Education Entrepreneurs.

The Big Picture
Though specific in their focus and catering to narrowly defined audiences, the emergence of these new management education programs underlines the ways in which a business school education is proving more and more useful across professional fields. Is it any wonder that year-to-date GMAT registration volume – which surpassed 47,000 at the end of February – is higher than comparable figures for any other year studied?

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Stanford Graduate School of Business Launches New Women’s Executive Leadership Program

This May, the Stanford Graduate School of Business will offer its first-ever executive education leadership program created exclusively for women. The five-day program, which will be held from May 12th through 16th, will focus on strategies and skills designed to help women shape their careers while maximizing both professional and personal goals. The deadline to apply is March 31, 2008.

“Women often struggle with how to develop their own leadership styles and how to enhance their status within an organization,” said Margaret Neale, faculty director of the new program and a professor of organizations and dispute resolution at the business school. “To reach the highest levels of management, it is essential for women to recognize, understand and transform common business challenges into career-building opportunities.”

The new program will combine lectures, interactive exercises and leadership diagnostics focused on developing interpersonal and organizational skills while examining the unique challenges that women face in organizations and providing strategies for overcoming them. One session, “Influencing Without Authority,” will take a close look at the importance of influencing small groups. Another, “Creating Value,” will introduce negotiation strategies and concepts through hands-on exercises.

The program targets women who are in supervisory roles as well as those who have been identified by their organizations as having leadership potential. Small business owners and entrepreneurs also are expected to benefit from the course.

Professor Deborah Gruenfeld, a social psychologist and professor of leadership and organizational behavior at Stanford, will serve as the program’s second faculty advisor. Her current research examines the psychological consequences of attaining power. Other faculty participants include Jennifer Aaker, professor of marketing; Francis Flynn, associate professor of organizational behavior; and Larissa Tiedens, professor of organizational behavior.

In addition to the aforementioned sessions, the program also will include exercises focused on increasing team effectiveness, sharpening powers of persuasion and maximizing social networks and influence.

Of course, it all comes at a cost… Program tuition is $8,700, which includes accommodations in the Schwab Residential Center, located a short walk from the Graduate Business School, where the program will be held.

For enrollment information, contact Luz Deras, associate director of programs for the Office of Executive Education, at 650-724-6301, or call toll-free at (866) 542-2205 (US and Canada only), or email deras_luz@gsb.stanford.edu. 

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Surveying the Executive MBA Landscape

Applications are up but acceptances are down among executive MBA programs surveyed by the Executive MBA Council, which also found that individuals and organizations alike are getting a faster return on investments made in higher education than in previous years.

The nonprofit organization, whose membership includes 300-plus executive MBA programs in more than 25 countries, this month released data gathered from two distinct surveys designed to chart the current executive business education landscape: one of its member programs and another of recent executive MBA graduates.

The first study, the Executive MBA Council 2007 Membership Program Survey, found that the average number of applicants per program jumped 25 percent from 2005 to 2007 but that program and class sizes dropped slightly during the same time period.

On average, programs accepted 63 percent of applicants in 2007, down from 67 percent in 2005. In response to increased application volume, more than half of the programs surveyed (57 percent) are considering increasing capacity or opening additional programs in new locations.

Even as application volume is rising – or perhaps contributing to the surge – 36 percent of executive MBA member programs are expanding their outreach efforts in an effort to diversify class makeup. Of special outreach programs in place, 59 percent target women; others focus on drawing more applicants from ethnic minority, entrepreneur, nonprofit and public sector audiences. The member program survey also found that average total program costs rose slightly, from $54,295 in 2005 to $57,954 last year.

The council’s second survey, the Student Exit Benchmarking Survey, is designed to gauge the perceptions and opinions of executive MBA students upon graduation. This year’s respondents report that the time it takes for their organizations to get a return on the investment made in their executive MBA pursuits has shortened from 28 months in 2006 to just 23 months in 2007. Students who fund their own education are also experiencing a faster return on investment: 45 months in 2007, down from 52 months in 2006.

Recent graduates also report a jump in salaries upon completion of their programs, as well as more promotions than expected. According to the survey, executive MBA graduates reported an average salary increase of 21 percent upon completion of their programs, with average salaries rising from $107,097 to $130,056. Thirty-seven percent of students surveyed said they expected a promotion upon graduation; 43 percent received one.

The Executive MBA Council is a strategic partner of the Graduate Managaement Admissions Council, which owns the GMAT exam.

Monday, January 28, 2008

Part-time and Executive MBA Programs

Part-time MBA programs offer sound alternatives to full-time options in terms of time and tuition. Usually lasting two to three years, part-time MBA programs allow students to keep their jobs while attending classes in the evenings or on weekends. This schedule allows students to minimize debt by maintaining their income and/or obtaining tuition reimbursements from their employer with the added benefit of immediately applying classroom lessons to their own careers.

Applicants with extensive work experience (a minimum of five years) and company sponsorship may find an Executive MBA program to be the best fit. These programs provide a solid framework in general management and prepare candidates for long-term senior level growth. EMBA classes usually take place on weekends, though some programs may require students to take 1-2 weeks of time off from work each year to attend intensive class sessions.

For those unable to attend a full-time MBA program, but seeking new skills to push their careers forward, be sure to take a look at the part-time and EMBA program deadlines below and to check out the schools’ websites for further details.

PART-TIME MBA PROGRAM DEADLINES:

Babson College / Olin
Evening MBA: May 1st, 2008, July 1st, 2008, or rolling admissions until August 15th
Fast-Track MBA: May 1st, 2008, July 1st, 2008, or rolling admissions until August 15th

Berkeley / Haas
Evening & Weekend: February 29th, 2008

UCLA Anderson
FEMBA: April 2nd, 2008

Carnegie Melon University / Tepper
Flex-Time MBA: March 10th, 2008, April 28th, 2008, April 28th, 2008 then rolling
Flex-Mode MBA: March 10th, 2008, April 28th, 2008, April 28th, 2008 then rolling

Chicago GSB
Weekend Program: June 6th, 2008
Evening Program: April 18th, 2008 (summer entry), July 11th, 2008 (fall entry)

DePaul University / Kellstadt
Weekend MBA: July 1st, 2008 then rolling (September entry)
Evening MBA Program: February 1st, 2008 (spring entry), April 1st, 2008 (summer entry), July 1st, 2008 (autumn entry), October 1st, 2008 (winter entry)

NYU / Stern
Langone Part-Time: May 15th, 2008

Northwestern / Kellogg
Evening Part-Time MBA: April 18th, 2008 (summer quarter), July 18th, 2008 (fall quarter)

University of Minnesota / Carlson
Part-Time MBA: May 1st, 2008 (fall semester), October 1st, 2008 (spring semester)

University of Southern California / Marshall
MBA.PM: Rolling until May 1st, 2008

EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAM DEADLINES:

Berkeley / Haas
Executive MBA (Berkeley-Columbia): February 11th, 2008

UCLA Anderson
Executive MBA: April 1st, 2008, then rolling

Chicago GSB
Executive MBA: February 1st, 2008 or April 1st, 2008

Columbia Business School
NY-EMBA (September entry): June 1st, 2008
NY-EMBA (January entry): October 15th (early deadline) and December 3rd (deadline)
EMBA-Global: February 11th, 2008 (May 2008 entry)
Berkeley-Columbia: February 11th, 2008 (May 2008 entry)

Duke / Fuqua
Global Executive: February 18th, 2008 or March 17th, 2008 (May 2007 entry)
Cross Continent: March 17th, 2008 or April 14th, 2008 (July 2008 entry)
Weekend Executive: Not yet announced (first deadline last year was May 14th for March entry)

University of Michigan / Ross
EMBA (August entry): February 1st, 2008 March 15th, 2008, or May 1st, 2008
EMBA (January 2009 entry): June 1st, July 15th, September 1st, October 1st, November 1st or December 1st, 2008

NYU / Stern
EMBA: April 15, 2008 or June 15, 2008

UNC / Kenan-Flagler
EMBA Evening: January 21, 2008, March 17, 2008, May 5, 2008 (August entry)
EMBA Weekend: April 7, 2008, July 14, 2008, or October 1, 2008 (Jan. 2009 entry)
OneMBA Program: January 29, 2008, April 1, 2008, or June 10, 2008 (Sept. entry)

Northwestern / Kellogg
Executive MBA: February 1, 2008, April 1, 2008, June 1, 2008 (September start)

Wharton
WEMBA: February 1, 2008 (for Philadelphia or San Francisco location)

Friday, January 11, 2008

Georgetown, ESADE Partner to Offer New Global EMBA

Earlier this week, Georgetown University and ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, announced that they have partnered to create a new executive management program. The partnership is the latest in a growing trend of global offerings designed to provide an emphasis on international business to busy executives juggling the competing demands of academia, career and family.

The new program, which will be known as the Georgetown-ESADE Global Executive MBA, will be offered in six 11-day modules on four continents, and will draw on the strengths of each the ESADE Business School and Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business and Walsh School of Foreign Service.

“This program will give accomplished executives a chance to both crystallize their professional experience and better understand the complexities of global business in a world-class program that is adapted to their schedule,” said McDonough School of Business Dean George Daly.

The new EMBA will blend some of the most distinctive aspects of other programs offered by the three participating schools. It will incorporate the interdisciplinary teaching and international residencies that set McDonough apart, capitalize on the Walsh School’s leadership in international relations and global policy and draw on ESADE’s expertise in executive leadership, social innovation and international business.

“The result is an intellectual challenge and an academic experience that goes beyond classrooms, cases and textbooks,” according to a release from Georgetown announcing the program’s launch.

Georgetown touts the new offering as the “first of its kind to include a strong global policy dimension with an executive business degree.” Indeed, the precise combination of program components may not have been offered before, but global EMBA programs are part of an ever-increasing trend.

Earlier this month, Cambridge’s Judge School of Business announced new partnerships in Asia and elsewhere in the United Kingdom that will allow the school to expand its executive management offerings. And last spring, INSEAD announced its own partnership with the School of Economics and Management at Beijing’s Tsinghua University.

U.S.–based schools, too, have steadily been expanding their reach by setting up remote campuses as part of an effort to make executive management programs more accessible to busy professionals. Chicago’s EMBA program features both London and Singapore campuses. Wharton has a San Francisco campus that caters to Silicon Valley executives who don’t want to travel to Philadelphia. And Kellogg in 2006 added a Miami campus and corresponding EMBA program focused Latin American markets.

The new Georgetown-ESADE program will begin in Washington, DC, in June 2008. It will feature subsequent modules in Barcelona, Buenos Aires/Sao Paulo, Bangladore, Barcelona/Moscow and Washington/New York over a 16-month period.

Applications for the inaugural class are now being accepted. There are three application deadlines: February 28, April 1 and May 15, 2008. Accepted participants will be notified within two weeks of their admissions interview. To learn more about this new program, click here.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Cambridge’s Judge School of Business Forges New Partnerships in U.K., Asia

Cambridge Executive Education, the executive education arm of the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, has forged two new partnerships in recent weeks that will further extend the school’s reach in the United Kingdom and Asia.

The first, a partnership with the University of Hong Kong, will deliver a five-day program for senior executives focused on strategic issues in corporate finance. The course, which will be offered for the first time at the end of February, will explore topics such as risk management, equity analysis and valuation, mergers and acquisitions, and globalization and China.

The second, a partnership with the Louis Group, a private property, financial services and technology group, will establish the Louis Group Business Academy in the United Kingdom beginning in January 2009. The new business academy, to be led by faculty from Judge and staff from the Louis Group, will help business owners strengthen their general management, marketing, strategy and finance skills – giving them necessary tools for managing their businesses more effectively and surviving difficult economic climates.

The expansion into Asia with the short program for senior executives is part of a push by Cambridge to expand its teaching and research in the field of business finance. Earlier in December, the school also launched a new Master of Finance degree program.

“We chose to partner with the University of Hong Kong because they are one of the premier management education schools in Asia with an extensive amount of experience in the executive education market,” Cambridge Executive Education CEO Dr. Larry Abeln said in a statement announcing the new Hong Kong partnership. The program will include speakers from both Cambridge and the University of Hong Kong, presentations by local business experts and visits to the Hong Kong Exchange and HSBC.

The partnership with the Louis Group, meanwhile, is part of Cambridge’s commitment to helping the business community contribute to the social and economic needs of the broader community. “We are pleased to be working in partnership with the Louis Group on the design and development of this important U.K. program, which will explore and raise the awareness of leadership and management in the global economy,” Abeln stated. “The program will provide participants the opportunity to reflect on the impact these challenges will have for current approaches to business and broader trends in society, giving them the knowledge base to advance entrepreneurial careers,” he continued.

These new partnerships by Cambridge echo the efforts of other business schools to expand their reach around the globe. Also in December, INSEAD launched of a new African faculty fellowship and the London School of Business opened a new Dubai center. And earlier last fall, the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania announced that it will hold its 2008 Global Alumni Forums in Lima, Peru; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Cape Town, South Africa.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

BusinessWeek 2007 EMBA Rankings Preview

For our readers with an interest in executive education, we wanted to point out that BusinessWeek Online is poised to announce its bi-annual ranking of global EMBA programs. Though the main ranking page still points to the 2005 addition, the site has just published a slideshow featuring the top 25 schools. We’ll post again with some commentary once the feature is made more official, but in the meantime, here’s a preview of this year’s top-ranked programs:

1. Northwestern (Kellogg)
2. University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)
3. University of Chicago
4. University of Michigan
5. USC (Marshall)
6. Columbia Business School
7. Emory (Goizueta)
8. UCLA (Anderson)
9. Duke (Fuqua - global)
10. UNC (Kenan Flagler)
11. Southern Methodist University (Cox)
12. Georgetown (McDonough)
13. Cornell (Johnson)
14. Ohio State (Fisher)
15. Instituto de Empressa
16. IMD
17. IESE
18. INSEAD
19. NYU (Stern)
20. London Business School
21. ESADE
22. Thunderbird
23. Queen’s University
24. Washington (Olin)
25. Villanova University