| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 18, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| SPECIAL REPORT -- EXECUTIVE EDUCATION
The Executive MBA Your Way How B-schools are making it easier to juggle work, classes, and family The Executive MBA program (EMBA) of Columbia University Graduate School of Business has never had trouble attracting students, and Sept. 25 was no exception. Every seat was filled for the first day of classes of a rigorous program that will meet on campus every Friday for the next 21 months. Yet that wasn't the only option: With demand soaring, Columbia has also opened up the course to executives who prefer an every-other-weekend schedule. Down in Athens, Ga., a group of students at the University of Georgia's Terry College of Business also began its degree program, and it too, features something new. All the students in this program work full-time for PricewaterhouseCoopers, and few live near Athens. They just spent two weeks on campus and will return regularly over two years. Not only will the PwC students get most of their coursework online, but it has been customized specifically for the global consultant. Welcome to the world of the tailor-made Executive MBA. The combination of the Internet and increased competition are forcing B-schools to become far more flexible in their EMBA programs. No longer do students have to attend programs close to home on a take-it-or-leave-it schedule. These days, students--and their employers--have much greater freedom to design EMBAs to suit their needs. ''The old 'go to class on alternating Fridays and Saturdays' is not the only way to do it anymore,'' says Charles W. Hickman, head of projects and services at the AACSB-International Association for Management Education, the B-schools' accrediting group. It's a shift that seems to be working. Thanks to the roaring job market and companies' intense need for skilled managers, the EMBA degree is hotter than hot. Of the 100 schools surveyed by BUSINESS WEEK for its biennial EMBA project, the average program graduated 61 EMBAs this year, up from 37 five years ago. Moreover, the number of programs has risen sharply over the last decade. Just 55 schools awarded EMBAs in 1988; today, 190 accredited programs exist, including 35 overseas, says David L. Poole, chair of the board of trustees at the EMBA Council. And their students are no slouches: Those in BUSINESS WEEK's survey average an $88,000 salary and 13 years' work experience. ONLINE ACCESS. It's also quite a busy group. Many wouldn't be able to earn the EMBA if they couldn't do much of their work online (see page 94) at whatever time, day or night, that suits them. According to the BUSINESS WEEK survey, an average 10% of the EMBA curriculum is now delivered online, even at on-campus programs. That's key for students struggling to juggle work, school, and family. ''The flexibility of the [PwC] program makes it appealing,'' says Roy Greco, a principal consultant in PwC's customer relationship management practice. The freedom from a biweekly schedule has also allowed many programs to beef up their global coursework--a big issue for many sponsoring companies. One innovative program is the new Duke MBA-Cross-Continent at the university's Fuqua School of Business, set to begin next August in both Frankfurt and Durham, N.C. The program consists of eight terms, each requiring one week on campus followed by six weeks of online work. The students will spend at least four terms at their home campuses; then they will combine to attend elective courses held either in Germany or the U.S. ''This is a model that fits our own understanding of the changes of the future, globalization, and technology,'' says Martin Moerhle, head of executive education at Deutsche Bank, one of the corporate sponsors. That's just one way that universities are trying to ensure that EMBA graduates make a bottom-line impact when they return to work. At Rutgers University in New Jersey, this year's EMBA students must choose two relevant concepts at the end of each class. At the end of the 18-course program, they must create a case study using all of the items selected. The hope is that the EMBA students will retain enough hard information to address the challenges that bedevil them back at the office. Moreover, like PwC, many companies are creating customized EMBA programs for their execs only. Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) and BellSouth Corp. (BLS), for example, have set up EMBAs with the University of Texas at Austin and Kennasaw State. And in creating an in-house EMBA degree at Ford Motor Co. (F), Stew Friedman, the director of the auto maker's new Leadership Development Center, may cut out the schools altogether. His goal: ''To train and inculcate and radicalize a core of leaders within,'' he says. It's a new role for the EMBA--but in a management-obsessed era, not a surprising one. By Jennifer Reingold, with Mica Schneider, in New York _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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