UNC's Business Undergrads Look Abroad

The head of the bachelor's in business administration at Kenan-Flagler B-school talks about his new, highly competitive, international program

Undergraduates apply to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School as sophomores, so their high school transcripts are not scrutinized as closely as is their performance in college coursework, says Jeff Cannon, director of the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration program, who supervises the admissions staff. This year's business newcomers had a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.49 while at the university, the same as in recent semesters.

Cannon has been at UNC for more than 20 years, and this will mark his 15th year as BSBA program director. He recently spoke to BusinessWeek.com reporter Julie Gordon about Kenan-Flagler's strengths and admissions process. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation.

	Jeff Cannon University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The message by us as a school is that we're very much training and preparing students to manage in the global workplace, and so international efforts in all of our degree programs are high on the priority list.

A program that launches this year is a collaboration among Kenan-Flagler, Copenhagen Business School, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The three partners each selected 15 students. They're at their home schools and, about halfway through the fall, they will link together virtually and begin working on cross-management teams.

Is this program only for undergraduates?

Yes. In the spring semester, they will all be in residence in Copenhagen where they'll study European business strategy. After the spring concludes, the group moves to Hong Kong, where they will study Asia markets (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/24/06, "Global Fever"). There will be immersion trips to Shanghai and then [while returning to the U.S.] they'll take an immersion trip to Tokyo. Then, in the fall semester a year from now, they will be in residence here at Chapel Hill and we'll focus on entrepreneurship, one of the strengths of Kenan-Flagler and UNC.

How competitive is admission into the program?

Very competitive. During that admissions process, from the 500-plus applications [for the fall class] we had an initial list of 90-some students and we cut back down to 30-some, and then through interviewing and case discussions and so forth, we selected the 15 participants.

Do many students study abroad?

Yes. Our program goal is that, by 2009, we'd like to have close to 100% of our students earning their degree with academic credit outside the U.S. As of this last year, we're at about the 65% level.

How much is an international focus a draw to Kenan-Flagler?

It's a very big draw to Kenan-Flagler. Certainly, I think the overall reputation of the school, on the basis of the strength of our faculty, is a draw. Because of the message from this university about the importance of international education and because of the focus that we have of promoting global business studies, it has proven to be a big recruiting tool for us.

What was the acceptance rate for the fall class overall?

We received just over 500 applications, and we accept a class of 330. We have 660 business majors, juniors, and seniors at any one time.

So do you always keep it at that size?

The entering class is always 330.

Do you usually receive about 500 applications?

It fluctuates between 500 and 550.