By Miguel Gonzalez
News Editor
The College announced the introduction of the Master of Business Administration program for the School of Business on Sept. 24.
According to the College’s website, the MBA program was approved by the Board of Trustees this past February.
William W. Keep, the interim provost and the vice president for academic affairs, says the MBA program has been in development for three years. When Keep was the dean of the School of Business, he had always imagined how an MBA program could benefit the College.
The two-year MBA program’s “T-Style” curriculum, which has students complete a focused specialization followed by the MBA core, consists of 14 credits and 42 academic credits. Students in the MBA program will concentrate on one of its three specializations –– data analytics, finance and strategy, innovation and leadership.
Pasquale Quintero Jr., the director of the MBA program said that the strategy, innovation and leadership specialization is still in development.
Keep says that under the “T-Style” curriculum, students who are older business professionals will hone their skills in specialized classes and apply them at their jobs.
Keep states that the College’s MBA program stands out because of its communication between faculty and students, its three specializations and its use of business practitioners, who are alumni or experienced professionals tasked with advising graduate students.
“The program has a business practitioner associated with each and every course,” Keep said. “The faculty will use the practitioner to help reinforce and expand upon the application of MBA concepts in practice.”
Keep first pointed out how the MBA program offers flexibility to employed students. According to the College, classes occur on Saturdays for eight hours and meet six times per semester.
“(The MBA program) allows students, who are working professionals, to meet and get to know each other while, at the same time expanding the potential market because students come to campus only six Saturdays a semester,” Keep said.
Quintero is excited to see how the MBA program will help both students and professionals at building their careers.
“It’s very exciting to be involved with launching a brand new program,” Quintero said. “Especially one that is innovative and taking a different approach to graduate business education.”
Keep explained that the School of Business is not looking to expand with its MBA program, but to attract and educate ambitious students just like the undergraduate business majors.
“Getting the ‘right’ students is more challenging,” Keep said. “We are fortunate at TCNJ to attract strong undergraduate students who are thoughtful about their academics and next steps. The goal is to do the same thing at the graduate level. We do not expect the MBA to be large, but we do expect it to be of high quality.”
