Joint MBA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 30, 2007

CONTACT:
Dr. Brad Kleindl
(417) 625-9319

 

JOPLIN, MO (SNS) – The presidents of Missouri Southern State University and Northwest Missouri State University will meet at 2 p.m., Friday, Sept. 7, at Northwest's Kansas City Center in Liberty to lay the foundation for a new online master's degree program in business administration.

 

President Dean L. Hubbard of Northwest in Maryville and Acting President Terri Agee of Missouri Southern in Joplin will sign a memorandum of understanding creating the cooperative program, which could begin as early as fall 2008 if approval is obtained from the Missouri Department of Higher Education and the Higher Learning Commission.

 

The curriculum will mirror Northwest's traditional MBA, which requires candidates to complete 33 hours of graduate credit in addition to a research component. Courses will be delivered via the Internet, instructional television and other electronic means. Northwest's Melvin and Valorie Booth College of Business and Professional Studies and Missouri Southern's Robert W. Plaster School of Business Administration will each provide equal numbers of faculty.

 

Under the terms of the memorandum, students will be subject to Northwest policies for admission, retention and program completion and pay Northwest tuition rates.

 

Each institution will retain revenue generated through courses taught by its own faculty. Likewise, instructors will be paid by their home university, though other costs, such as marketing and promotion, can be shared.

According to the MOU, an advisory board comprised of representatives from both institutions will oversee the program, and diplomas issued to graduates will bear the names of both schools.

 

“We are very excited to be able to partner with Northwest to provide this valuable MBA program to students in our region and it is another example of how higher education institutions are working together to deliver high quality programs and use state resources efficiently,” commented Dr. Terri Agee, Acting President of Missouri Southern.

 

Dr. Brad Kleindl, Dean of The Robert W. Plaster School of Business Administration at Missouri Southern, stated, “This offers many students more opportunities to advance their careers and it uses the latest technology and distance learning tools to provide the program efficiently and conveniently.”

 

Northwest recently opened academic centers equipped for both classroom-based instruction and distance learning in Kansas City and St. Joseph, and the University has a long tradition of providing graduate-level outreach in such Missouri locations as St. Joseph, Chillicothe, Trenton and Kirksville.

 

Missouri Southern also has agreements with Northwest for Master of Science in Education degrees in Early Childhood Education and Instructional Technology. Other Missouri Southern agreements to deliver cooperative master’s programs are with the University of Missouri-Kansas City in the fields of nursing and dental hygiene, Missouri State University in teaching (MAT) and Southeast Missouri State University in criminal justice.

 

Additional information is available at http://www.mssu.edu/graduate.