U.S. News and World Report has ranked the University of Wisconsin MBA Consortium program in the top ten online MBA programs for 2015. That puts the program in the top 5% of ranked MBA programs across the country. Also in the top ten schools were Indiana University, Temple University, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, Arizona State University, University of Florida, University of Texas – Dallas, Carnegie Mellon University, Pennsylvania State University – World Campus, North Carolina State University and Auburn University. It is the top ranked program among Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan and Iowa universities, both public and private.
View U.S. News and World Report’s Announcement
“It is great to receive this recognition,” said Dr. Robert Erffmeyer, director of the UW Consortium MBA program. “We are fortunate to have talented and dedicated faculty and staff at our four Consortium partner schools. That, together with our students’ commitment, academic credentials, GMAT scores, and course performance all contribute to the ranking.” Consortium schools include the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, University of Wisconsin-Parkside and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. The Consortium is managed at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
While the U.S. News and World Report has been ranking colleges and universities for the last 30 years, the publication has only ranked online graduate business schools since 2013. The UW MBA Consortium was ranked among the best in both 2013 and 2014. The rankings this year go a step further and separate MBA programs from all other graduate business programs and the Consortium has received its highest ranking thus far.
The #1 criterion used by U.S. News is student engagement which constitutes 28% of the overall ranking. Accreditation by AACSB is a significant element of this criterion because of the high standards enforced by the international organization. AACSB accreditation, considered a distinguished mark of excellence, is achieved by less than 5% of all business schools in the world.
Another significant element of this criterion is the number of students who are able to graduate within three years. The Consortium prides itself on providing the kind of flexibility, availability of course offerings, and advising support that makes it possible for a high percent of students to graduate in three years or less. Other elements of the student engagement criterion include such things as collaborative coursework and instructor availability, student retention rates, use of professional instructional designers, and student evaluations/response rates.
Many other elements also contributed to the high ranking achieved by the Consortium, including its admissions selectivity, its reputation among peers, the credentials and training of its faculty and the provision of student services and technology.
The UW MBA Consortium has also been recognized by GetEducated.com as a Best Buy in online MBA education.
For more information, contact Dr. Robert Erffmeyer, Consortium MBA Director, at erffmerc@uwec.edu