Online MBA Program is ranked No. 1

March 18, 2008

Gainesville, Fla. — The Economist magazine has ranked the University of Florida’s MBA Program at the Hough Graduate School of Business No. 1 in the world.

The survey was the first to review distance-learning MBA programs, and was conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). EIU’s criteria included program content, quality of students and distance-learning elements, which incorporate standards like a sense of connection to the school.

“We’re proud of the level of camaraderie and collegiality in these programs. Students work together online, are interacting constantly in teams, and are fully invested in working with their colleagues through this program,” said Alexander Sevilla, assistant dean and director of UF’s Hough Graduate School of Business.

“Through this program, lectures are documented on a DVD, broadcast as podcasts and saved to students’ iTouch (which they receive as part of the program). Students get a MBA library of content that has value throughout their MBA program and career,” Sevilla said.

The program was created in 1999, with an initial graduating class of 24 students. Today, the Internet MBA draws the same ratio of applicants as the traditional MBA, 3-to-1, and has a graduation rate of 99 percent. This year’s one- and two-year online MBA programs are both filled to maximum capacity, 65 and 59 students respectively, and a number of qualified applicants were turned away.

Sevilla attributes the program’s success to the unique classroom policy, which requires students to spend one weekend a semester at campus with their peers, colleagues and professors. Students spend one day wrapping up the previous semester’s classes, and the second day meeting new professors and classmates.

The program’s combination of technology, convenience and camaraderie affords students the opportunity to work and interact with other business professionals regardless of corporate or geographic boundaries. In doing so, the students and the university gain a vast network of alumni contacts throughout the world.

“We have nine different MBA programs, but each yields the same result…every program requires the same amount of rigor to earn a University of Florida degree,” Sevilla said.