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Queen's launches new MBA for business graduates
January 02, 2004
2004-01-02 - KINGSTON, ON, January 3, 2004 – Queen’s School of Business welcomed 63 students from across the nation to their first day of classes in the new Queen’s Accelerated MBA for Business Graduates (www.qmba.ca). This innovative 12-month program has been designed specifically for people with undergraduate business degrees whose aim is to accelerate their careers through the ranks to the executive suite. The students begin with a two-week residential session in Kingston and then return to boardroom learning teams in their home cities for regular classes conducted via Queen’s state-of-the-art videoconferencing system.
“At Queen’s School of Business, all our programs attract the best and brightest, and this one also attracts some of the most motivated and entrepreneurial,” said Dr. Peggy Cunningham, the program’s director and chief architect. “The students that start Queen’s Accelerated MBA today have signed on for what just may be the most challenging – and most rewarding –12 months of their lives. And the great news is that by the end of 2004, they’ll have earned their MBAs.”
Queen’s Accelerated MBA uses a team-based learning model and is delivered via real-time, interactive, multi-point videoconference technology to students in boardroom learning teams across the country all day Sunday and Monday morning, every other week. Queen’s School of Business has been successfully using and perfecting this technology and learning model for more than nine years in its market-leading Queen’s Executive MBA program. The 63 students will take classes in seven cities: Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Mississauga, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montréal.
“With so many students enrolled in the very first year of Queen’s Accelerated MBA, it’s clear that a lot of business grads see value in our program,” said Dr. David Saunders, Dean of Queen’s School of Business. “As we’ve done so often at Queen’s School of Business, we saw a niche that wasn’t being filled anywhere else — and that’s why so many talented students are in Kingston today, ready to take their knowledge and their careers to the next level.”
A class profile shows the new students to be a talented and determined group. While they have, on average, 5.5 years of work experience, their average number of years of management experience is nearly 3 years — a sign of how quickly they have moved up their corporate ladders.
Queen’s Accelerated MBA has rigorous admission requirements. Participants must have a recent undergraduate degree in business and at least two years of relevant work experience – criteria that ensure candidates have both real-world experience and recently-learned business fundamentals. In addition, the program’s 12-month, part-time format means participants can study without putting their careers – and their incomes – on hold.
“Until now, many people with undergraduate business degrees have been hesitant to take an MBA because the first half of a typical program repeats fundamentals they’ve already learned,” Cunningham said. “Some schools have placed these students directly into the second year of an MBA program, but this can have mixed results, depending on the quality of undergraduate education, and the ability of the student to integrate midstream. That’s why at Queen’s we built this specialized program from the ground up.”
The Queen’s Accelerated MBA curriculum is focused on developing advanced strategic and management skills, which build on students’ understanding of business fundamentals. Applicants are considered for admission based on the quality of their work experience, references, previous academic experience and GMAT scores. Tuition for the program is $48,000, which covers the full 12 months of the program, and includes tuition, books, case materials, accommodations and meals for the three on-campus residential sessions at Queen's.
About Queen’s School of Business:
Queen's School of Business (www.business.queensu.ca) is one of the world’s premier business schools. The school’s programs include Queen's MBA for Science & Technology, ranked by BusinessWeek magazine (US) as the #1 MBA in Canada and #2 in the world outside the US; the market-leading Queen’s Executive MBA – ranked #1 in Canada by Canadian Business magazine and by a 2002 poll of senior Canadian executives – delivered at Queen’s facility in Ottawa, as well as to 14 cities across the country by real-time, interactive videoconference; Queen's Executive Development Centre, Canada’s largest provider of executive education and ranked in the world’s top-10 for open enrolment programs by the Financial Times (UK); the undergraduate Bachelor of Commerce, with the highest entrance standards in Canada; and MSc and PhD programs that produce leading researchers for industry and academe.
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For more information contact:
Laurie Ross
Queen's School of Business
613.533.2319 or Lross@business.queensu.ca