New Business Majors, MBA Restructured
With the start of Fall 2020, AUC has introduced three new undergraduate business programs to its portfolio: Bachelor of Business and Entrepreneurship, Bachelor of Business in finance, and Bachelor of Business in marketing. This is in addition to its existing Bachelor of Business Administration in management of information and communication technology.
Along with the new programs, an elective experiential learning course, Cooperative Education (Co-Op), is now offered in business undergraduate programs, enabling students to experience on-the-job training on a full-time basis with external entities.
Last but not least, the AUC MBA program has also undergone a revamp; now spanning two years instead of three and becoming a general program with two career paths substituting the previously existing track specializations.
New Business Administration Bachelor’s Degrees
The three new undergraduate programs replace the Bachelor of Business Administration degree with concentrations in marketing, finance, management of information technology, and entrepreneurship and international business.
The Bachelor of Business and Entrepreneurship prepares students to become “business-ready” by acquiring the skills needed to become responsible business leaders and adapt to complex situations — exploring and unleashing their creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurial thinking to pave the way for running a new business venture.
The Bachelor of Business in finance provides students with a comprehensive learning experience that transforms them into well-rounded professionals. By gaining transferrable, deep financial knowledge that can be applied both locally and globally, students fully grasp a given industry’s best practices and a business’ various functions.
The Bachelor of Business in marketing delivers a multidisciplinary learning experience that takes into account several perspectives to accommodate to the changing industry requirements. Exploring topics such as psychology, information systems, and data analytics, students are prepared not only for a career in business or in a traditional business setting, but in any industry that requires transforming analytics into strategy.
"The three new undergraduate programs are part of the continuous curriculum advancement plan of the Department of Management at AUC’s School of Business,” said Maha Mourad, chair of the Department of Management and associate professor of marketing. “In addition to their specific focus on either finance, marketing or entrepreneurship, the way the programs have been structured and the multidisciplinary aspects they entail aim to provide students with a well-rounded business exposure.”
Redefining the AUC MBA Experience
The Master of Business Administration has been reshaped to include contemporary topics such as data analytics, digital transformation, and innovative global business models have been accentuated, and experiential and action-based learning have been profoundly incorporated to make for an immersive experience. Featuring courses broken down to smaller credit hour units, the highlight of the new MBA framework is becoming a two-year program instead of a three-year one and the added flexibility of topic selections within the business seminar courses.
Content-wise, the program adopts a dynamic, general format that eliminates the previously existing specializations. Graduate students now select among two career prospect tracks to tailor their business education depending on their objectives: corporate advancement, focusing on career growth opportunities within organizations, and entrepreneurship, focusing on entrepreneurial firms and family businesses.
“Revamping the MBA program was a challenging process, especially in adapting to the ongoing changing market needs” said Sherwat Elwan, director of the MBA programs and associate professor of operations management. “This restructuring empowers us to fully prepare our students for the workplace of the future by tackling contemporary topics and skills that lie at the heart of every leader, paving their way to becoming vehicles for impact and change.”
On-the-Job Training: Cooperative Education
Additionally, a new experiential learning course, Cooperative Education (Co-OP), was introduced for students majoring in business as part of their general electives. In this course, students are directly engaged, on a full-time basis, with external entities for six months. During this period, students are assigned specific tasks relevant to their area of study as a form of on-the-job training and are evaluated on key learning objectives by academic faculty and an external entity counterpart.
“The Co-Op program is really a triple-win model. First, it enhances the student’s learning experience, career readiness, and placement quality. Second, it constitutes a continuous feedback channel regarding the quality of students and curricula. Third, it provides the employer with a natural extended monitoring and recruitment setting which should lead to better hiring decisions” said Ahmed Abdel-Meguid, associate dean of undergraduate studies and administration and associate professor of accounting, AUC School of Business.
These new programs and courses aim to equip today’s business students with the comprehensive knowledge they require to navigate an ever-changing business landscape, entailing real-world experience, adaptability, interdisciplinary knowledge, efficiency, and critical thinking.