New Realities in Education

Augsburg College has introduced graduate business certificates in fields such as finance, human resources management, and international business. These allow students to advance their skills in a specific discipline without investing as much tuition and time required for an MBA. “It gives them the opportunity to gain expertise and provides the option to complete their MBA later on,” Zitnick says. “Some courses in the certificate program can be applied toward a concentration in the MBA degree.”

And for those who enjoy mixing their education with pleasure, there’s Bethel University’s part-time MBA program. In February, 2006, Bethel joined forces with Cragun’s Resort near Brainerd. Every six weeks, students from Minnesota, South Dakota, Michigan, and Wisconsin take classes at the resort over a weekend. They can bring their families, who enjoy the resort’s amenities as students learn from scholar-practitioners who are gathered from the around the country. The rest of the time, the Bethel students learn via the Internet.

“The online environment reflects the way business people are interacting. We utilize all of the technologies that they have been or will be using in their workplace,” says Mary Whitman, director of Bethel University’s MBA program. “This has worked exceptionally well for our students.”

The diversity and depth of educational opportunities is a step in the right direction, according to Schuster. “Knowledge dissemination should be a continuous process,” he says. “Lifelong learning should be enthusiastically embraced. The MBA of 30 years ago is worlds apart from the MBA of today. Knowledge and credentials do have an expiration date. By acknowledging and addressing that, we begin to genuinely serve both students and business.”