California State University, Stanislaus will be the first institution in the state to launch a fully online Master of Business Administration degree program which is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
“The fully online MBA represents an exciting opportunity for increased access that allows each individual to study anytime, anywhere in pursuit of their graduate business degree,” said CSU Stanislaus President Hamid Shirvani. “We are extremely proud to offer a high quality, innovative graduate business degree program to enable people to pursue or advance in their careers, and I commend the faculty for this wonderful achievement.”
The two-year program will offer the same education as the university's traditional, in-person MBA, the university said. The 33-unit course will cost roughly $800 per unit, which the university termed as “very competitively priced.”
In addition to the elite AACSB accreditation, awarded to 5 percent of business schools worldwide, all faculty involved in the program will have Sloan Consortium certification in online education. The Sloan-C standard is considered the “gold standard” in preparing faculty to transition classroom curriculum to online instruction, the university said.
The new degree is expected to meet students' wants while preparing them for the changing world of business in the wake of the internet, the university said.
“The market for MBA programs has gone online,” said Randy Harris, professor of Management in the CSU Stanislaus College of Business and program director for the new online MBA program. “We are both responding to the market through our new MBA program and preparing graduate students for the evolution of the workplace — collaborative functions traditionally handled face-to-face are increasingly moving to virtual online environments.”
The inaugural cohort, expected to begin in fall 2012, will accept approximately 30 students. The application period will be announced in the coming weeks.
For more information, e-mail MBAProgram@csustan.edu or call 667-3280.
