School of BusinessUniversity of Bridgeport

Admissions Presentation

Robert Gilmore, Ph.D.

Associate DeanSchool of Business

Why Come to the UB School of Business? --- At First Glance

• Curriculum Innovation

• Small Classes? How small are competitor classes?

• Students Work Closely with Professors

• Faculty have both professional experience and academic credentials

• Students study in an international environment

Location AdvantagesParticularly important for Finance, Accounting and Financial Services Concentrations

Industry in Connecticut and New York!

e.g., Finance Industry

– Close to Stamford, CT --- Financial Services

– Close to Hartford, CT --- Insurance

– One Hour from New York City

Accreditation

•Licensed and accredited by the State of Connecticut Department of Higher Education

•Accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).

•Professionally accredited by the Association of Collegiate Business Schools and Programs

Overview of Graduate Business Programs

• Graduate Program– Master of Business Administration – 12 Concentrations

• Curriculum and Pedagogical Innovations

Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) Program

• Program Description

• Admission Requirements

• What Is Special?

• Why Come to the University of Bridgeport?

Program Description24 Credits --- Core Courses (May be waived)

30 Credits --- Required (Program Required Course, Concentration Required and Elective Courses, and Capstone Courses)

____________________________________________54 Credits --- Completed typically in 3 semesters (18 months) to 6 semesters (3 years if student takes 9 credits a semester)

One Year (2 semesters possible – 30 Credits)

MBA Admission Requirements and Scholarships

• Bachelor Degree

• 950 = GMAT + (200*G.P.A.)

• GMAT (May be waived) --- 3.3 GPA, 3+years professional experience

• TOEFL Minimum (550 Paper, 80 Internet)*– *Take English Language Courses at UB if TOEFL is below 600

• Scholarships up to $5,000 depending on qualifications 1350 = $5,000, 1275 = $4000, 1200 = $3,000

Seamless Transfer to MBA from Undergraduate

• Students who complete a UB undergraduate degree with B or better in undergraduate equivalent courses can waive the 8 Core courses.

• They will only have to complete 30 credits.

MBA Curriculum – 4 C’s

– Core

– Concentrations

– Capstone

– Competencies

Core and Required

Core Courses --- Foundation and Breadth– Accounting– Finance– Economics– Business Law– Management– Marketing– Statistics– Information Systems

Business Research (required)

Concentrations

• Accounting• Finance• Information Systems and Knowledge Management• International Business• Human Resource Management• Management• Marketing• Operations• Small Business and Entrepreneurship• General Business

• Financial Services• Specialized Business

Innovation (Curriculum)

Financial Services

• Intended for those who need an understanding of different financial services organizations

(e.g., Investment and Commercial Banking, Securities, Real Estate, Insurance, and Financial Planning)

• Often Back Office managers need this knowledge as financial services firms are integrated across the financial services areas

Finance Compared to Financial Services

Financial Services Finance

• Required Required

• Managerial and Cost Accounting International Finance • Financial Derivatives and Risk Management Financial Derivatives and Risk Management• Money and Banking Investment Analysis• Global Financial Services Regulation • Cases in Finance Cases in Finance

• Electives Electives

• FIN 760 Investment Banking Advanced Financial Management and Policy • FIN 762 Insurance Management and Financial Institutions• FIN 764 Commercial Banking International Financial Management• FIN 767 Real Estate Financial Analysis and Modeling• FIN 768 Financial Planning Managerial Economics

Innovation (Curriculum)

Specialized Business

• Intended for those whose career path doesn’t fit into the standard MBA concentrations

• Students may create their own combination of courses to fit a particular career – (e.g., 3 Marketing and 3 Information Systems)– (e.g., 3 Human Resource Management, 1 Operations, 1 Information Systems)

• Must have approval of Faculty Advisor

Innovation (Curriculum)

• Small Business and Entrepreneurship• Required Courses– Small Business and Entrepreneurship course

Creating the Students Real Business– Small Business Practicum 1 – Small Business Practicum 2

• Electives– Three courses in any discipline related to the business that

the student wants to pursue

International Business

• International Concentration

• International content Embedded in each course as relevant to that discipline

• International Student Teams working together

Capstone ExperienceIntegration and Interdisciplinary

• Courses– Strategy and Business Policy– Computerized Business Simulation– Internship or Applied Thesis

• Integrate their knowledge and skills– Accounting, Finance, Management, Marketing,

Information Systems, Economics, Law, Statistics, Research

• Application of concepts• Understanding how all business areas work together

Competencies

• Employers want to hire students who can

write, speak, and compute!

• We are Emphasizing and will be Measuring all three

• Coding of Syllabi – How much writing in each course– How many oral presentations– How much computing (math, statistics, computer skills)

• Learning Assessment --- Proposal --- Some assessment we can do ourselves but some assessment requires financial support

• Because we measure we can control and adjust the amount of various classroom activities according to learning outcomes

Competencies

• Leadership

• Teamwork

• Critical Thinking

• Decision Making

• Innovation and Creativity

• Communication Skill within Team

• Organization Ability

Competencies --- ExperimentalCan’t Sell this Yet

• Most universities talk about competencies• We will Emphasize in teaching and Measure !

• Each class with Team Assignments:

– Students will evaluate each other in team context– and professor will evaluate student in team context

• Cumulative rating across courses

• Students will know their strengths – help to make career decisions• Employers will know student strengths – help to make hiring

decisions

Content

• How do we ensure coverage of needed content?

• Courses have complete listing of common material that all professors teach -- Done for Core courses now!

• List of common material is in the form of exam questions

• Code for application of concepts and skills in advanced courses

• Exam questions may be used for waiver exams, capstone examination, and as student study guides.

What we Teach

The I’s in You (Each Student) The 4 C’s of the Curriculum

Integration Core

Interdisciplinary Concentrations

International Capstone

Competencies

Our Learning Goal for Student Success• College graduates will typically have seven different careers in their working

lifetime. Thus, specific tasks that they are trained to do today may not be useful tomorrow.

• Adapt and learn how to learn!

• We accomplish this by teaching fundamental skills and core knowledge on which they can build and basic principles which they can apply to new situations. We apply these skills and knowledge in advanced courses.

• Students are challenged in the classrooms with the wide variety of assignments, projects, cases, presentations and exams, thus they learn how to learn.

• Students are also challenged with working with students from many different countries. This requires the practice of adaptation.

• Adaptation is also learned through the emphasis on Competencies

Vision for the Future• Pedagogical Innovation

• International Business Education

• Establish Partnerships with other Universities

• Establish Centers of Excellence– Center for Global Financial Services– Center for Small Business and Entrepreneurship– Center for Retail and Sales Management– Center for Health Care Management

• External Funding Plan

Questions