The Fuqua School of Business hopes to make the Master of Management Studies pilot program a permanent degree and create an international program to supplement current offerings.
Fuqua Dean Blair Sheppard proposed the creation of a Global MMS degree at the Academic Council meeting yesterday that would address a “desperate need” for such programs in countries like China, India, Brazil and the United Arab Emerites.
“Our goal in being global is to learn as a school and as a faculty. We need to learn to better prepare our students for the world we’re about to enter,” Sheppard said.
The world is rapidly developing, and students who learn how to conduct business solely in the United States are unprepared for the global market, he explained.
The local MMS, which began its pilot in Fall 2009, is a one-year degree targeted toward students coming directly out of undergraduate programs. It is intended to provide students who have strong liberal arts backgrounds with essential business skills, said Fuqua Deputy Dean Bill Boulding, who was also at the Council meeting.
“Students with an undergraduate [degree] and an MMS would be ahead of the game, as opposed to someone who went through a business program in undergraduate,” Boulding noted.
The Global MMS program’s curriculum would be identical to the program offered in Durham but address a separate need, Sheppard said. The local program aims to give students with a strong interest in liberal arts competitiveness in the job market, whereas the global program would seek to satisfy teamwork and critical thinking challenges faced by international students.
“These kids just don’t know how to work in a business at all effectively,” Sheppard noted. He added that global faculty will have to do an “even better job” preparing students— who often have science-oriented backgrounds—to do presentations, write reports and work in a group setting.
In addition to the Global MMS pitch, Fuqua’s council presentation included a proposal to convert the local MMS pilot program into a permanent degree. The Council will vote on that proposal next month.
Boulding shared his thoughts on the program’s budding successes, challenges and goals for the future. He said the students are “fulfilling the promise of getting a really great start on their careers.”
Because the MMS degree is a relatively new concept in the United States, Fuqua found that convincing businesses to recruit from this program was an obstacle. After recruiters were convinced of the concept, however, the program enjoyed great employment success, Boulding said.
He added that applications for admissions doubled from the first year to the next, and Fuqua expects them to double again in the program’s third year. He hopes that this will further increase the quality of the student body.
“[The MMS program] is providing a positive contribution to the business school,” Boulding said. “We had to spend more money on the career-support side of things, but even with that, it is still providing that positive contribution.”
In other business:
The two nominees for the next chair of the Academic Council were presented to the body Thursday by Dona Chikaraishi, professor of neurobiology and chair of the Academic Council Chair Nominating Committee.
The candidates are Susan Lozier, a professor of ocean sciences at the Nicholas School of the Environment, and Thomas Metzloff, a professor at the Law School.
“I’ve worked with both Susan and Tom, and I will tell you both of them would make outstanding chairs,” said current Academic Council Chair Craig Henriquez.
The council will vote on the new chair at their February meeting.
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