In The Shadows Of Duke & UNC

‘A MAJOR MEAT MARKET’

To build these sponsor relationships, Jenkins also runs a series of events. In late October, Jenkins holds a Bioservices Forum that draws top CEOs in the bio-tech, bio-pharma and bio-ag industries. Even more successful is their supply chain program, currently ranked #6 by Bloomberg Businessweek. Twice a year, senior level executives from companies such as Caterpillar and Bank of America visit campus. Here, they watch students discuss major projects and faculty present research and best practices.

“It’s a major meat market,” says Weiss. “Students get incredible attention from companies on the work that they’ve done.” While Jenkins’ small size can make it hard to lure recruiters onto campus, these boards and events are a huge draw. “We use those companies to mitigate the size of the program,” according to Weiss.

Although many programs benefit from deep alumni networks and brand names, Jenkins has the advantage of being married to nothing. “We don’t have a lot of history,” says Weiss. “That allows us to be much more experimental in what we want to do.”

A YOUNG AND OPEN-MINDED FACULTY

For example, Weiss observes that, “For years, we’ve set up one-credit courses at the MBA level, so we could take something of great current value and interest to students. Instead of developing a semester-long program, we’d create a weekend course, to see how it would take shape and how students would react to the learning.” From experimenting with what sticks and what doesn’t, Jenkins has developed semester-long courses related to sustainability, big data, and leadership.

Weiss also credits his faculty for their flexibility, enthusiasm and entrepreneurial spirit. “They’re very young and open-minded,” says Weiss. “They’re very excited about trying to do different things. They’ve had significant experience in industry before getting their doctorates. They understand success metrics…and have a real feel for what’s it’s like out in the field tackling very, very complex projects.”

He also lauds the partnership between tenure track faculty and executives from companies like Accenture and IBM who’ve joined the full-time faculty. “We’ve created a research faculty. And we’ve also created a complementary faculty to really assist them in delivering a good part of the practicum activities that students need to be successful.”

PLANS TO KEEP THE FULL-TIME MBA PROGRAM SMALL

Weiss is now working to offer practicums to online students, which should take place by 2015. He hopes to double the professional program’s size with the same quality of students. And Weiss is working towards a true integration between the professional program and its online counterpart (which was launched in 2011 and is ranked # #36 by U.S. News). “We’re trying to create a 100% seamless process between the two groups. With their travel and workload commitment, it’s very hard to commit over 2 plus year period. We want them to have the opportunity to do one semester face-to-face and take swing semester online, to create zero barriers to moving through program rapidly and obtaining their educational objective the way they want. It’s the same program, the same faculty. There’s no reason to keep the programs separate.”

Despite this, Weiss doesn’t anticipate growing the full-time program, which stands at roughly 100 students. While he describes the group as “phenomenally close and cohesive, he believes those students require more personal attention.

“Some services can really only be best done when students are face-to-face – particularly faculty guidance and mentoring. Our full-time students, more often than not, are career-changers. They’re coming from engineering and computer science. They need that hands-on help and all of the support services we have here to effectively make that change.”

And that’s at the heart of Jenkins’ curriculum: Preparing for change. Anticipating a future of rapid, not incremental, innovation, Jenkins focuses on training students for tomorrow’s tech-driven culture. “We have a different set of areas to focus on that match incredibly well to the research triangle – which we think are the jobs needed today and in the future…We have created incredible opportunities so more students can get hands dirty…And we’re preparing  students for life-long careers, as they move through whatever those different jobs may be.”

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