Queen's launches first MBA for Business Graduates

Canada's business school pioneer breaks new ground again

2003-06-16 - KINGSTON, ON, June 16, 2003 – Queen’s School of Business, a leader in business school innovation and the first in Canada to offer a specialized, privatized MBA program, is breaking new ground again with the launch of the world’s first MBA exclusively for those with an undergraduate business degree. Queen’s Accelerated MBA for Business Graduates, (www.qamba.com) announced today, begins classes in January 2004 and provides an opportunity for high-achieving young managers with a recent undergraduate business degree to earn an MBA in just 12 months, while they continue working full-time. The program is being offered in major cities across Canada by interactive, real-time videoconference.

“Queen’s Accelerated MBA is the latest step in making the world-class Queen’s MBA accessible to the best and brightest businesspeople from coast to coast,” said Dr. Peggy Cunningham, the program’s chief architect and inaugural director. “This is the first MBA that’s been tailored specifically for people with undergraduate business degrees who are ready to embark on a challenging program that will take their careers to the next level.”

Queen’s Accelerated MBA is designed specifically for people with 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. Further, the program’s 12-month, part-time format means participants can study without putting their career – and their income – on hold.

“At Queen’s School of Business, all our programs attract the best and brightest, and this one will also attract some of the bravest,” said Cunningham. “Queen’s Accelerated MBA will be one of the most rigorous business programs in the world – and for those who are admitted, it just may be the most challenging 12 months of their lives.”

Queen’s Accelerated MBA uses a team-based learning model, and will be delivered via state-of-the-art, 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.

Until now, many people with undergraduate business degrees have been hesitant to take an MBA because the first half of a typical MBA program focuses on the business fundamentals they already know from their previous degree. As a stopgap measure, some business schools place people like this directly into the second year of an MBA program, though this practice can have mixed results depending on the quality of each candidate’s undergraduate business education, and the ability of the student to integrate midstream.

The Queen’s Accelerated MBA for Business Graduates curriculum is focused on developing advanced strategic and management skills, which build on students’ understanding of business fundamentals learned in their undergraduate degree. Applicants will be 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.

Information sessions for Queen’s Accelerated MBA for Business Graduates are being held in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, June 16-27. Details and locations are available at www.qamba.com or 1-888-460-5869.

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, please contact:

Laurie Ross
Queen’s School of Business
613-533-2319
Lross@business.queensu.ca

Note: Queen's Accelerated MBA program is subject to Ontario Council on Graduate Studies approval.