By Kerry Miller

Already, such conversion has been happening at business schools for several years now, albeit in a less systematic way. Current AACSB standards require accredited business schools to have 50% of their classes taught by academically qualified (PhD) faculty; with 40% allowed for "professionally qualified" (non-PhD) teachers (and 10% for faculty who may not qualify as either). Fernandes says that while currently most accredited schools actually have a much higher percentage of classes taught by faculty members with PhDs, as shortages worsen, it will be professionally qualified teachers who step in. The new bridge programs aim to increase the number of candidates available by making the transition easier for potential teachers.

The first bridge program for executives will be held in October at UC Irvine's Merage School of Management. A second session will be held at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business in 2007, with possible future sessions held in Denver and New York. The seminar will cost participants $5,000, and if the price seems steep, Fernandes says the bridge program also offers a much more marketable end-product for participants: Upon completion, they'll receive a certificate from AACSB that they are "professionally qualified" to teach. If the program seems a bit optimistic about what can be accomplished in a week, the program's organizers insist it is doable.

MORE THAN A STOP-GAP.  The bridge program for PhDs in other disciplines will be a more intensive program of about 12 weeks in length. The course is longer, Fernandes says, because preparing an economics scholar to teach finance is more difficult than preparing an experienced financier already well-versed in the field's practical applications. "Some people say it can't be done, that we just can't convert faculty that quickly," says Fernandes. "But we're not starting with blank slates." Still the program has raised doubts among current faculty and other critics, who wonder how AACSB can expect to replace years of PhD work in three months. Yet Fernandes says the program isn't trying to create a "12-week PhD." Rather, the program is "just a start" for candidates who would then be expected to continue their professional development as faculty members.

While a few years ago, Fernandes says, he talked about such programs as a stop-gap measure until B-schools could reinvigorate their PhD programs, he's since changed his mind. He now calls bridge programs "the most important thing we can do on the supply side" of the problem. With the stall in production of business PhDs unlikely to improve any time soon, schools will have to rely more on faculty without them. Bridge programs "will have to be more than a Band-Aid fix," he says. "It will have to be a part of a long-term solution."

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