At Mendoza, Analytics Meets The MBA

Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame is about to undergo its biggest change since just after the close of World War II. Mendoza will expand its curriculum and split its Management Department into two new, distinct departments while introducing a new dual-degree program.

The new two-year residential program will allow students to study for both an MBA and a Master of Science in Business Analytics beginning in the fall of 2017. The program will be overseen by the new Information Technology, Analytics, and Operations Department, says Rob Easley, an associate professor and chair of the new department. Meanwhile, the other new department, the Management & Organization Department, will continue to be responsible for programs “typically associated with a management department,” Easley says.

“This is a historic change for Mendoza College in that the last new department, Marketing, was created shortly after WWII,” Easley tells Poets&Quants.

THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE

Which is not to say Mendoza hasn’t seen its share of change in recent years, says Mary Goss, senior director of graduate business programs. The school launched a Master of Science in Management in 2013, and in January of 2015 introduced a Master of Science in Business Analytics and another in Finance. In 2016, Mendoza launched the Integral Leadership Development program for new MBA students, Goss says, “and we are excited about their response to the experience.” That week-long program takes place before students ever set foot in the classroom, giving them an opportunity “to be introspective and discover their core values, and think about how they can lead from those values in an authentic way.”

She adds: “Major changes in department structure are rare, but new programs are nothing new for us.”

Read the entire story on the Poets & Quants website.

Read more about the MBA/MSBA dual-degree program.