MBAs on the Move

Augsburg first got experience in mobile MBAs at its Rochester campus, where it has offered the degree for the past three years. About half of the Rochester students are affiliated with the Mayo Clinic, but other major employers such as IBM also have employees in the program.

The college developed its off-site programs as a way to meet the needs of adult learners who typically juggle work and school simultaneously, says Steven Zitnick, Augsburg’s MBA program director. “Our philosophy is to locate where the students are,” he says. “We want to be student-centered and make the program as successful for them as possible.”

In downtown Minneapolis, that means students walk to class through the city’s skyway system. And in Rochester, being student-centered entails launching a new MBA next year that focuses on health care management.

Indeed, the student-centric view is apparent in all these mobile MBA programs. Convenience and the opportunity to learn with colleagues is making the MBA degree even more attractive.