The University of Rhode Island’s College of Business Administration has been educating business students for nine decades, and is in the midst of celebrating that milestone. Thanks to a commitment to continuing evolution, it seems likely the school will be celebrating again in another 90 years.
With an MBA program that has a concentration in health care management set to begin in the fall and a master of science in finance on the docket for the fall of 2015, URI is keeping its eye on where the needs of business are going to be, not just on where they were.
The school’s strategic innovation MBA program, which debuted in the fall of 2012, showcased a top-to-bottom rethinking of the curriculum, moving the focus away from pure class work to an approach that connected students directly with Rhode Island businesses, using the real challenges of those businesses to inform the academic underpinnings of the degree.
Thus, while it is time to celebrate nearly a century of training business leaders, it is clear that the school is not going to rest on its laurels. And that is as it should be. •