BUSINESS WEEK RANKS IU EXECUTIVE MBA PROGRAMS AMONG NATION'S BEST

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Once again the Indiana University School of Business has been recognized as among the nation's best by Business Week magazine, which recognized the school's Executive Education program as a leader in global, non-degree programs.

In its Oct. 20 issue, the magazine reports the results of a national survey of corporate human resources and management development executives on the top university providers of executive education. IU's non-degree programs were ranked 15th overall and fifth for those focused on marketing.

Dan Dalton, dean of the IU School of Business, said the magazine's ranking is just one way the quality of the school's executive education programs has been recognized. Corporate America's interest in the school's management education has surged in recent years.

"We are delighted with the national recognition of our Executive Education initiatives. Partnerships with our corporate clients are absolutely fundamental to our continued excellence as a business school," Dalton said. "This recognition underscores the efforts of our faculty and professional staff who are responsible for our success."

Business Week pointed out that interest in the IU School of Business' non-degree management programs over the last five years has been tremendous, reporting that they have grown by nearly 282 percent over that period, which was the highest rate of growth of any program ranked in the top 20.

In the report accompanying the rankings, Business Week said this has been a national trend. In its survey, 42 percent of human resource executives said they were sending more people to executive education programs than they were five years ago. According to Training magazine, total corporate spending on training and education at the management level was estimated at $16 billion in 1996, up 14 percent from a year earlier.

The magazine took note of the school's emphasis on offering programs that focus on real world, hands-on learning to create measurable impact on business results -- 70 percent were found to be customized programs. Of the top 20 schools, IU had the second-highest percentage of executive education programs that were specifically designed for issues and challenges facing certain companies.

But this is nothing new for the IU School of Business, said Camden Danielson, director of the school's Executive Education program.

"The IU School of Business has been a leader in the custom-designed executive education market since 1968, when we established our first educational partnership to link program content with the strategic business objectives of the firm," Danielson said. "Nearly 30 years later, we continue to service that original client while our custom product line has grown extensively in size and scope."

Business Week noted that the program's clients include giants such as Whirlpool, AT&T and EDS. Others include Allison Engine, Bayer, Hughes Electronics, IBM, Lincoln National Insurance Co. and Marathon Oil.

The rankings were determined by a survey Business Week mailed to 535 companies. Companies that didn't use university-based programs or whose spending on education was too decentralized to be accurately reported were screened out. Out of 394 companies remaining in the sample, 120 replied, for a response rate of 30 percent. Companies ranked schools in order of preference. Each school's point total was divided by the number of companies that had experience with it to get overall rankings.

For more than 75 years, IU's School of Business has been at the forefront of curriculum innovation. In 1996, U.S. News & World Report placed the undergraduate business program fifth in the nation and Business Week ranked IU's MBA program 15th. IU's undergraduate program in marketing was ranked third in the U.S. News & World Report study and Business Week reported that recruiters ranked IU fifth-best in the nation for MBAs in marketing.

For more information, contact George Vlahakis, Office of Communications and Marketing, 812-855-0846 or 812-855-3911, gvlahaki@indiana.edu

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