At Pittsburg State University, Michael Muoghalu noted, there is no concentration in entrepreneurship, but the concept is embedded in all the school’s programs. “By default,” said Muoghalu, “the student in the MBA program is in an entrepreneurship program.”
“The secret to the future success,” added McDougall, “is making every individual understand they have some degree of creativity.” The school’s role is to encourage those students to be innovative and entrepreneurial.
At UMKC, the entrepreneurial program is multidisciplinary. Law school professors and engineering professors, among others, teach in the program. The school’s goal is to generate 100 actual ventures per year.
“If one or two or three or five succeed over the next 10 years,” said Teng-Kee Tan, “we could have another H&R Block, another American Century, another Hallmark, another Garmin, another Sprint. That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Baker University receives a corporate contribution of another sort, said Dan Falvey, chair of the business and management programs at its Overland Park campus. Every two or three years, the school brings area employers to campus and asks whether there are topics, issues, or directions they would like Baker to pursue. “We get terrific input,” said Falvey, “and it changes from year to year dramatically.”
Student Costs
What became obvious is that there is an impressively wide range of program and cost options for an aspiring MBA student.
As Gerald McDougall explained, the average debt load for an undergraduate student nationally is $20,000. “OK,” McDougall asked, “how is that individual going to finance an MBA?” Costs, he believes, give state universities like his a real competitive advantage. The prospective student has to ask, “How can I look at a $43,000 a year program with very little tuition reimbursement from my employer vs. $12,000?”
Steve Wiegenstein, graduate school dean at Columbia College, noted that the average undergraduate student debt load at there is between $12,000 and $13,000. For the MBA, if a student were paying the full tab, the cost would be approximately $36,000.
At Webster, which Carolyn Cottrell notes is a not-for-profit institution, the MBA costs $2,000 per course or $24,000 total, presuming there are no prerequisites needed.
The Washington University executive MBA is in the “middle of the pack” when it comes to costs, which Kay Henry estimated to “approaching $100,000.”
Skip Crooker, associate dean of business and graduate studies at the University of Central Missouri, estimated costs at his school to be less than $9,000 for 33 credit hours, excluding books and other miscellaneous costs. “We’re definitely pushing the competition on our end,” he said.
Costs at Pittsburg State are slightly higher. Mike Mugohalu estimated between $12,000 and $15,000. The cost varies based on whether incoming students need foundational courses. Whatever the cost, he added, “I think that the students love what we do. As shown by last year’s publication of Princeton Review, our program was ranked among the top 15 MBA programs in the country based on student evaluations.”
Technology
The challenge for any academic discipline is to keep pace with the innovations that industry routinely spawns, and in no discipline is that challenge more deeply felt than in graduate business education.
Cathie Peterson, DeVry University’s dean of academic affairs, saw as her school’s “biggest challenge” the integration of technology into the classroom. The problem is compounded because the technology is expensive and there is no guarantee of its enduring utility.
“Keeping up with technology is arduous and expensive,” said Steve Wiegenstein, quoting his college president, “but not keeping up is foolhardy. And I think that’s the way you have to approach it.”
