New MBA/Educational Studies dual degree offered

Updated 5:10 PM June 17, 2004

New MBA/Educational Studies dual degree offered

By Joseph Serwach

News Service

As the business side of education swells into a growing industry, the School of Education (SoE) and Business School soon will begin offering a dual master's degree in business administration and educational studies.

The innovative program brings together two faculties to provide interested and qualified students with unique preparation in educational leadership and policy and business management.

Prospective students have expressed interest in fields such as: designing and leading charter schools; working in private school settings and new for-profit schools; and training and professional development programs within companies and more traditional educational publishing companies. The two schools recently tested the new program on a trial basis, and three students recently graduated with the degree.

"This is a group of outstanding students who are non-traditional in many ways."—Roger Goddard, education professor

Students must be admitted to the Business School's Master of Business Administration program and to SoE's Master of Arts in Educational Studies program. Students take the core classes for both degrees to earn the new degree in about 2.5 years.

The first three graduates of the program pursued studies from SoE's educational administration and policy program. Other specializations in educational studies also are available.

Roger Goddard, an education professor who helped coordinate and launch the new master's, notes that the first two graduates of the student-initiated program graduated last fall, and both received job offers. The third student graduated this spring and will pursue doctoral studies in the fall.

Many applications from across the country, including candidates from top Ivy League schools, already have come in for the new program even before final approval was granted, he says.

"This is a group of outstanding students who are non-traditional in many ways," Goddard says. "There are going to be many attractive career opportunities for them."

He says positions such as associate school superintendent for finance or headmaster of a private school would be among a host of jobs for which expertise in both education and business would be essential.

"The increasing involvement of the private sector in education at all levels—from charter elementary schools to profit-centered graduate schools—along with the clarion calls for virtually all organizations to become better learning organizations suggest that the integration of business acumen and educational principles is a highly relevant degree program for leaders of 21st century organizations," says Kim Cameron, a professor with appointments in the business and education schools, and a faculty representative for the program.

New MBA/Educational Studies dual degree offered

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