U-M offers new MBA/Educational Studies dual degree

ANN ARBOR—As the business side of education swells into a growing industry, the University of Michigan School of Education and Business School will soon begin offering a new dual master’s in business administration and educational studies degree.

Prospective students have expressed interest in fields such as: designing and leading charter schools; working in private school settings and new for-profit schools; training and professional development programs within companies and more traditional educational publishing companies. The two U-M schools recently tested the new program on a trial basis and three students recently graduated with the new degree.

Students must be admitted to the Michigan Business School’s Master of Business Administration program and to the U-M School of Education’s Master of Arts in Educational Studies. Students take the core classes for both degrees to earn the new degree in about 2.5 years. The first three graduates of the program pursued studies from the School of Education’s educational administration and policy program. Other specializations in educational studies are also available.

Roger Goddard, an education professor who helped coordinate and launch the new program, noted that the first two graduates of the student-initiated program graduated last fall and both received job offers. The third student graduated this spring and will pursue doctoral studies in the fall.

Many applications from across the country, including candidates from top Ivy League schools, have already come in for the new program even before final approval was granted, he said.

"This is a group of outstanding students who are non-traditional in many ways," Goddard said. "There are going to be many attractive career opportunities for them."

He noted that positions such as associate school superintendent for finance or headmaster of a private school would be among a host of jobs for which expertise in both education and business would be essential.

"The increasing involvement of the private sector in education at all levels—from charter elementary schools to profit-centered graduate schools—along with the clarion calls for virtually all organizations to become better learning organizations suggests that the integration of business acumen and educational principles is a highly relevant degree program for leaders of 21st century organizations," said Kim Cameron, a U-M professor with appointments in both the business and education schools, who is a faculty representative for the program.

The innovative program brings together two nationally leading faculties to provide interested and qualified students with unique preparation in educational leadership and policy and business management.

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