UNCG and Guilford College Launch Accelerated MBA

GREENSBORO – Students from Guilford College will be able to complete a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree at the Bryan School of Business and Economics at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in a shorter time than normally required through a new agreement announced between the two schools.

Under the agreement, Guilford students are to begin taking classes at UNCG in the spring of 2008. They will be able to earn an MBA in as few as 15 months by earning six hours of graduate course credit during their senior year and completing undergraduate courses to waive 12 semester hours of basic level MBA course work.

Ordinarily, a part-time UNCG MBA student will take six credit hours per semester, resulting in a six- to eight-semester time period to complete the program in the Bryan School.

The program is one of several alliances Guilford and UNCG are in the process of creating. Other undergraduate-to-graduate programs under consideration are sport studies/sports management and computing and information technology. The college and university are also exploring shared access to study abroad programs.

“Guilford College is delighted to be academically allied with UNCG to offer joint programs that benefit our students and optimize our resources,” said Guilford President Kent Chabotar. “By intentional initiatives such as this, the college strengthens its undergraduate programs and becomes a supplier of students to graduate programs.”

Faculty from the Bryan School will teach the graduate-level courses to Guilford seniors pursuing the accelerated MBA. The six semester hours of graduate course credit will be in courses beyond the credit hours required for the baccalaureate degree and will normally be offered in the evening at Guilford but may be offered at UNCG or another site.

Guilford seniors participating in the program must earn at least a grade of B in any courses used to waive basic level MBA courses and they must have a minimum overall 3.0 grade-point average.

Admission to the MBA program will be through the UNCG Graduate School with the support of the MBA program office. The usual admission requirements, including GMAT scores and grade-point averages, must be met for admission to the MBA program.

The Bryan School is the largest of UNCG’s six professional schools, with 450 graduate students and 2,100 undergraduates. It is accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, and is among the top 10 percent of business schools nationwide that have earned accreditation at the undergraduate and graduate levels in both business and accounting.

Guilford is a liberal arts college in Greensboro. It had 363 business management majors when the 2006-07 year started, the most for any academic program at the college. The accelerated MBA program has the approval of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the accrediting body for colleges and universities in the Southeast.

For more information, contact the Bryan School at (336) 334-5338, or visit: http://www.uncg.edu/bae/mba/guilford.html.

-June 2007