The MBA program at UW grew last week with the announcement of two new MBA programs, an online program with emphasis on energy and an international program.
Steven Farkas, the director of the MBA program at UW said that the MBA programs offered attract students from outside Wyoming and these programs give back to the area.
“In addition to the students that we’re able to attract to come to Wyoming to participate in these programs, we’d like to think that there are also individuals who give back to the state by being hired by a lot of our state employers,” Farkas said.
The MBA program at UW differs from other MBA programs nationwide.
“We focus a lot on experiential learning,” Farkas said. “There is a lot of project based work, and a lot of time spent with companies, visiting company sites or headquarters. There is a lot of time spent doing project based work.”
After students finish their first year in the international program, they spend a week visiting companies around Europe.
“After the students complete their first year on track, they also participate in the national leadership school and then we also take them to Germany for a week as a part of their Capstone, visiting companies around Europe,” Farkas said.
As part of the international MBA program, students spend their second year studying at Pforzheim University in Germany, getting a dual MBA degree.
“The students will spend their first two semesters here in Laramie on campus and then they spend their second year at Pforzheim immersed in international management MBA courses,” Farkas said. “They also will be required to perform a thesis while they are there.”
Farkas said the online energy concentration is a product of high demand in this field.
“Because of the demand that we have seen from our industry partners, we decided to add an energy concentration online tailored to people who work in the industry,” Farkas said. “We took what was our current online MBA program and added three energy specific courses that we offer to the energy management track.”
Farkas said the new programs receive funding from the university, particularly from tuition revenues.
“The program is funded primarily through the university or the college in combination with tuition revenues that we have created, so when you look at the University of Wyoming MBA relative to other programs, we are historically as a top value institution,” Farkas said.
Muna Oweidat, an MBA student at UW said the new programs are just a component of the larger program.
“Visiting national companies, hosting CEO’s of large corporations to share their inside vision, collaborating with businesses for class projects and traveling to Pforzheim University to gain further exposure,” Oweidat said, “are all only small part of the large efforts being made to insure a full learning experience through a short term program.”
