Distance Learning

U Dayton to Launch Online MBA

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 10/18/16

The University of Dayton's School of Business Administration (SBA) will launch a new online master of business administration (MBA) program beginning in October of next year.

Designed to offer the intimacy of traditional courses and the flexibility of online classes, the program will feature live online classes and seminars taught by faculty and executives-in-residence and accessed through an interactive "online campus." Students in the program will also be required to to participate in two intensive immersion experiences with faculty and cohort members, one on campus and another in a second domestic or international city.

Dubbed MBA@Dayton, the program will offer a general MBA and an advanced standing MBA for students with significant experience. The advanced standing MBA will require 30 credits in electives and core business courses and should take approximately one year to complete. The general MBA will require an additional 18 credits and will feature foundational business courses for students with less experience or who need to sharpen critical skills. Both will use the same admissions standards as the university's on-campus MBA.

The university decided to partner with 2U to create the program, following a decision-making process that "included extensive consultation with the School of Business Administration, including a unanimous recommendation of the school's graduate committee and a formal vote of the SBA faculty to proceed with the partnership," according to a news release.

"We are very pleased to partner with 2U, which works with a select group of universities to offer best-in-class online education," said University President Eric F. Spina, in a prepared statement. "The program will combine 2U's advanced learning platform with both the rigor and quality of our distinctive business education and the teaching excellence of our faculty."