8:32 a.m., March 8, 2010----The fifth annual Bloomberg BusinessWeek review of the top undergraduate business programs ranked the University of Delaware's Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics 25th among the nation's top 53 public university programs, marking the fourth year in a row that the college has been recognized among the best business schools in the country.

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The college also ranked 61st among 111 public and private schools with international accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Based on student survey satisfaction, the Lerner College of Business and Economics placed among the top 45 percent of business programs in terms of teaching quality.

“Being ranked 25th among the top public university business schools and 61st overall reflects the dedication and hard work of the Lerner College faculty and staff in providing an excellent education to ensure the success of our students,” Dean Conrado (Bobby) M. Gempesaw said, adding, “I am especially pleased that the college once again received very high ratings in student satisfaction, teaching quality, facilities and service, and job placement. This clearly signals the college's continuing rise to prominence in delivering quality education, excellent scholarship, and service to the community.”

Geographically, the college is also positioned well. The Lerner College of Business and Economics placed fourth among programs in the area -- those within a one-hour drive of UD's campus in Newark -- including the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (fourth overall), the School of Business at Villanova University (20th overall) and the Sellinger School of Business Management at Loyola University in Baltimore (45th overall).

Bloomberg BusinessWeek used nine measures in ranking the programs this year, including surveys of nearly 88,000 senior business majors and more than 700 corporate recruiters, median starting salaries for graduates, and the number of alumni each program sends to top MBA programs.

What Bloomberg BusinessWeek calls an “academic quality rating” was also measured for each program by “combining average SAT scores, student-faculty ratios, class size, the percentage of students with internships, and the number of hours students devote to classwork.”

The Lerner College of Business and Economics did well in the academic quality rating, landing in the top 50 among all business schools in the country.

In the immediate period after World War II, the UD Department of Economics and Business Administration was housed in the School of Arts and Sciences. The College of Business and Economics grew out of this department and was officially established in 1963.

In 2002, in recognition of an MBNA Foundation endowment honoring its former chairperson and CEO, the college was renamed the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics.

The college is comprised of five academic departments including Business Administration, Economics, Accounting and MIS, Finance and Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management.

A number of educational and resource centers also reside in the college including Career Services, the Center for Economic Education and Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Studies, the Exelon Trading Center, the Delaware Small Business Development Center, the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance and the Lerner Computing Center.

The college was first accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business at the baccalaureate level in 1966. Graduate accreditation was received in 1982, and accounting accreditation was earned in 1984. All accreditations were reaffirmed in 2001.

Article by Kathryn Marrone