There is a direct correlation between growing enrollment, schedules designed for working professionals and location of the classes along Interstate-75, said Sean Creighton, executive director of Southwestern Ohio Council for Higher Education. The council is a public and private consortium of area colleges and universities such as Miami and Wright State.
“It increases access,” Creighton said.
Both programs are designed with schedules for full-time workers to study close to home. Cohorts are groups of students who start and finish the degree at the same time and have most classes together. Compared to MBA programs at Miami’s Oxford campus and Wright State’s Dayton campus, these classes meet less often.
Miami increased the size of its second cohort from 33 to 40 students, said Kristine Reid, assistant director of the professional MBA program for Miami. There were close to 100 applications, about a 10 percent increase in applications over last year, she said.
“We’ve always had a long-standing reputation for the business school. People were waiting for us to come to the suburbs and meet them halfway with education,” Reid said.
The two-year program was started last fall. Students tend to be middle to upper level managers with at least 10 years experience, Reid said.
One of the new students is Nancy Nix, Butler County treasurer. Nix started to look at MBA programs a year ago and chose Miami because of quality, proximity to home and cost. Part of her job as treasurer is investment of $200 million of county funds, for example, and the MBA can help with institutional knowledge of bond investments.
“I just feel like I could be strengthened in that area and an MBA with an emphasis in finance would be extremely helpful,” said Nix, who pays her own tuition of $27,000.
Based on capacity, costs and demand, Voice of America could accommodate 150 MBA students at a time the next three to five years, said Brad Bays, director of MBA programs for Miami. That means a total three cohorts could run in the next three to five years.
Past five years, a master plan for the site calls for five academic buildings, Bays said. He said there are no immediate plans for a second building. Also, other classes are held at Voice of America besides the MBA.
Wright State’s first MBA cohort from Mason graduated Saturday, Aug. 21. The program started in 2008, said Mike Evans, director of MBA programs for Wright State. There are two cohorts of 25 students at a time.
The Courseview program is more selective than the MBA at the main Dayton campus and looks for work history, Evans said. Unlike Miami, which offers evening classes during the week in West Chester Twp., Wright State offers weekend classes every other week in Mason.
“We look at that as an emerging market and really one of our center pieces with the MBA,” Evans said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.
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