Several business schools at black institutions are seeing a boost in the number of graduate students who enroll — but those students aren’t necessarily African American.
The strategy for recruiting and retaining students varies from school to school, but for some, a focus on international applicants and global business practices is a draw, experts say.
Enrollment at the graduate level has grown by nearly 37 percent at these business schools over the last five years, according to a February blog post from AACSB International–The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. There are 23 historically black schools with AACSB accreditation, and the number and types of programs have remained fairly stable during this period, AACSB says.
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About 130 students are enrolled in the MBA program at the historically black Morgan State University Graves School of Business and Management, which offers an evening program, says Joseph I. Wells, director of the school’s master’s programs.
Last fall, there were between 25 and 30 matriculants, he says, but there will likely be between 40 and 50 for fall 2016. “We have a nice pipeline of Saudi students,” Wells says.
Enrollment at the graduate level has grown by nearly 37 percent at these business schools over the last five years, according to a February blog post from AACSB International–The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. There are 23 historically black schools with AACSB accreditation, and the number and types of programs have remained fairly stable during this period, AACSB says.
Under university President David Wilson, the Baltimore school worked out an agreement with the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Education, says Wells.
In fall 2013, Saudi Arabia was the third most common country of residence for students from the entire university, with just 46 students from the Middle Eastern country. By fall 2015, Saudi Arabia was the most common country of residence, with 355 students.
Many applicants also come from Ghana, Nigeria and Nepal, Wells says.
Further down the East Coast in the District of Columbia, offering a global curriculum has become a selling point for the Howard University School of Business, says Barron Harvey, the school’s dean.
The school has about 120 students in its full-time MBA program, says Harvey. In 2015, it started offering the Global Trilateral MBA Certificate Program.
“It is for a select number of students who want an international experience,” Harvey says. “They will take a certain number of courses but also work on projects with our partnering schools.”
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Ten students each year are admitted to the program, which has partner schools in Beijing and Johannesburg. Howard MBA candidates travel abroad for conferences organized by the program as well as host program participants from overseas visiting the District of Columbia.
Overall, students get exposure to business practices, norms and cultures in different countries, Harvey says.
At other schools, keeping tuition low has attracted students.
“Our tuition is the lowest in the market,” says Kenneth Russ, director of business graduate programs at the Jackson State University business school in Mississippi. It charges about $12,000 for the evening MBA, he says.
Students can get the master’s degree through an evening program or online. Enrollment steadily climbed for the evening program between 2010, when it had 24 students, and 2014, when there were 56 students, Russ says.
Some of the students are from the Jackson region or previously attended Jackson State, says Russ, who also teaches marketing at the school.
For 33-year-old Cortez Gooch, having received his undergraduate degree from the school made him more inclined to return for an MBA. He graduated with the master’s degree in 2015 and says teachers, such as Russ, helped to enrich the classes.
“He was able to bring some of his experiences into the classroom,” says Gooch, who now works in Houston in logistics.
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Many experts on historically black colleges and universities say the schools often have a nurturing environment and foster close relationships between professors and students.
Harvey, from Howard University, says that level of compassion doesn’t necessarily stop at the undergraduate level. Business students, too, at his school can expect a warm environment where students are embraced.
“You’re not a number,” he says. “We don’t take a student for granted.”
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Graduate Enrollment Rises at Historically Black Business Schools originally appeared on usnews.com
