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Dr. Harold J. Raveché President of Stevens Institute of Technology Proudly Announces The Appointment of Dr. Lex McCusker, Dean The Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management The Wesley J. Howe School of Technology Management under Dean McCusker will continue to pursue outstanding research and internationally recognized educational programs in technology management at the under- graduate, master's and doctoral levels. Dean McCusker's appointment and The Howe School's move to the new state- of-the-art Lawrence T. Babbio, Jr. Center for Technology Management strong- ly reinforce the School's leadership role in technology management. Founded in 1997, The Howe School is distinguished among the nation's busi- ness schools in its close alignment with Stevens' Schools of Engineering and Sciences and Arts, as well as in its engagement in Technogenesis® — Stevens' unique learning environment, where creative inventiveness is nurtured among the students, faculty and partners in industry who collaborate in research inno- vation and the marketplace implementation of disruptive technologies. The Howe School has established global programs in Telecommunications Management, Project Management and Information Systems Management in China, Europe, India and Latin America. Nationally, The Howe School has been ranked among the top five technology- management programs (Optimize magazine). www.stevens.edu sachusetts, offer only the traditional MBA, offering no EMBA or part-time options. Others, like IESE Business School at the University of Navarra in Barcelona, Spain, offer part-time executive MBA programs, but only through a series of two-week, full-time modules that require students to leave their jobs for two weeks at a time. And its MBA is delivered only one way— two-year, full-time. "We think it's a better educational pro- cess for our students. Full-time programs work at a slower pace and are more comprehensive," says Jordi Canals, dean of IESE. "They offer students the chance to reflect more on what they learn." Canals admits that part-time MBAs and EMBAs do offer students advantages. "Part-time evening and weekend pro- grams can have lower opportunity costs. In addition, they allow students to implement what they learn more readily at their jobs," says Canals. "But full-time programs offer students more time to process the information. There will always be a tradeoff." Innovations, Not Compromises The tradeoffs between alternative MBA formats and their traditionally delivered counterparts may be unavoidable, but they are providing business schools with fertile ground to cultivate new approaches to MBA education. New MBA formats of all types, educators predict, will be more technol- ogy-enabled and less defined by a strict timetable. "With the executive MBA program, we moved from a time-bound format to a largely time-free format," says Hall of the Lubin School. "Students have more control over when and where their learning happens." Most educators agree with Hall that the MBA itself is not a constant—it must respond to the changing dynamics of the marketplace. "I don't think that anyone has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that you need exactly 60 credits for an MBA, or that you must earn them in this sequence or within this period of time," says Danko of Villanova. "We don't have to be locked into that model." Baczko of the Lubin School agrees. "The two-year pro- gram is here to stay," he says. "But it's not the only way to deliver an MBA." Although debate will continue over where nontraditional MBA formats will eventually lead, most agree on two points: Their popularity will continue to grow, and business schools will continue to offer new options. Still, as students decide on the level of flexibility that best suits their objectives, so too will business schools decide on the level of quality, rigor, and interaction they want to offer. That scenario could present an exciting challenge to business educators, as they work to create more innovative programs to meet students' constantly changing needs without sacrificing quality, or reputation, in the process. ■ z BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2006 27 F no tn ed ne dd y i i u r engineering, 8 n H 1 oboken, , 7 0 S t e NJ, v ens is located 1,800 and science wher e on undergr the management w est aduates on bank of and esque the 2 our H,600 pictur udson, o v er gr looking aduate M study students anhattan 55-acr e campus.