Messenger - Vol. 3, No. 4, Page 33
Summer 1994
B&E expands MBA programs

     Cooperative ventures between the UD's College of Business and
Economics and some of Delaware's best-known corporations as well as
other innovations, including new academic requirements, have greatly
enhanced the college's Master of Business Administration program.
     The result: Prospective students have a wide range of
alternatives when considering the program.
     If they work for the DuPont Co., they may qualify for the
Delaware MBA at DuPont program, a three-year track toward the degree
offered at a company worksite. If they work for MBNA America, one of
the nation's largest credit card companies, they may be able to enroll
in classes at the bank's headquarters near Newark. If they have
established careers and want to obtain an MBA as quickly as possible
while balancing family commitments, they may consider the college's
new 19-month Executive MBA program, which began this fall.
     Of course, the full-time and part-time on-campus program options
remain. But, the academic offerings have been revised to reflect a
greater emphasis on international and quality management, among other
issues.
     While there formerly was just one concentration (in finance), now
seven additional specialties are available: accounting, business
economics, international business, management, marketing, operations,
and technology and innovative management.
     The new programs on campus and on site allow college faculty to
teach as many as 450 MBA candidates, says Kenneth R. Biederman, dean
of the College of Business and Economics. Five years ago, the
enrollment was half that number.
     Howard Garland, Chaplin Tyler Professor and chairperson of the
Department of Business Administration, says the college decided in its
strategic planning that the MBA should be the flagship of its graduate
degree programs. The strategic plan was set with the goal, Garland
says, of creating "a state-of-the-art program consistent with what
corporate management has been asking.''
     In the fall of 1991, one of the program's innovations began in
earnest. The first class of students entered the Delaware MBA at
DuPont program, taking courses at the company's Barley Mill training
facility in Wilmington.
     The program offered benefits for DuPont, the University and the
students, all of whom were well-educated DuPont executives with
technical backgrounds and successful and expanding careers. Many of
the students already held doctorates in the sciences.
     "It goes without saying the company is very, very delighted that
we have the opportunity to offer the high quality MBA program of the
University of Delaware on site,'' says Ty Alexander, DuPont's director
of human development, staffing and personnel relations.
     Many of the program's graduates, Alexander says, will move into
managerial positions with greater responsibility, making the basic
grounding in business principles taught by the University increasingly
valuable.
     Further evidence of DuPont's satisfaction with the endeavor will
be obvious this fall when a new class of up to 30 students will begin
the program.
     "I would say that I can bring insights to problems that I would
never have thought of before, perhaps a new way of thinking," says
Faith Zwick, a member of the program's inaugural graduating class of
21 students.
     A product-support manager in DuPont's Agricultural Products
division, Zwick says she enrolled because she wanted to expand her
knowledge of the principles of business, "to learn the theories."
     Though she already has a doctorate in entomology from the
University of Arizona and had taken University courses in Japanese and
marketing, Zwick says she believes that the MBA she earned in June
gives her a view of business necessary for advancement.
     "The Delaware MBA at DuPont put the college," according to Robert
Barker, administrator of the MBA programs, "in a new arena in terms of
high-quality management programs."
     The newest addition to the roster of MBA programs begins in
September, with the enrollment of 32 students in the college's
Executive MBA program.
     Hailing from many of the nation's largest employers, the students
will take five terms of classes on Friday evenings and Saturdays until
March 1996.
     They will have the summers off and one or two free weekends per
term.
     At MBNA America, a program similar to Delaware MBA at DuPont will
begin this fall. The course offerings there follow several years of
successful, on-site course offerings through the University's Division
of Continuing Education.
     With the Executive MBA, Delaware MBA at DuPont and MBNA America
initiatives all gathering steam, and curriculum revisions for both on-
and off-campus programs approved, Biederman says college faculty and
administrators will move to hone the programs.
     But, the college won't be slowing down. Closer ties with the
College of Engineering are being explored, Biederman says, as well as
other initiatives in the area of executive education and training.
                                  -Stephen M. Steenkamer, Delaware '92