Program Innovation At Emory's Goizueta Business School

Goizueta Business School’s high-tech global classroom for online learning

At Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, there’s no limit to new innovations in programming for current and prospective students.

Goizueta will soon become the highest-ranked U.S. business school to launch a 100% online MBA program that will welcome its first cohort in August of this year.

The school is doubling the size of its highly successful MS in Business Analytics, with a new track in artificial intelligence. And it is also launching a new MS in Business Analytics for Working Professionals. The 11-month xMSBA will be delivered over weekday evening and Saturday classes, livestream classes for global participation, and engage students in four residencies (two in Atlanta and two global).

On the diversity, equity and inclusion front, Goizueta is also out front. Goizueta has founded the Peachtree Minority Venture Fund (PMVF) , only student-run venture capital fund that focuses exclusively on making equity investments into underrepresented minority entrepreneurs.

All of these initiatives are the result of Dean Gareth James, who joined the school in July of 2022 from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business.

GOIZUETA BUSINESS SCHOOL LAUNCHES A 100% ONLINE MBA

Goizueta’s new online MBA, the highest ranked school with an online option that requires no in-person residencies, is a response to the growing need for flexibility among working professionals. It follows on the success the school has had with an online Executive MBA program. Goizueta launched its hybrid executive MBA in 2020 after an 18-month research effort that found that prospective students increasingly are seeking greater flexibility, and the time students could commit to on-campus learning was getting shorter and shorter. It followed that with its fully online executive MBA in 2022. An online part-time MBA was the next logical step.

“As with other sectors, higher education is undergoing significant change from new technologies and changing expectations of professionals,” says Corey Dortch, associate dean of the Emory Evening MBA program. “After finding success with an Online Executive MBA and hearing from current and prospective students the interest in more online course offerings, we are thrilled to be able to offer working professionals even more access, flexibility, and convenience with our new part-time online MBA.”

With more demand than seats in the program and companies seeking business analytics professionals more than ever, Goizueta is aiming to push even further, giving businesses and students more cutting-edge experiences and opportunities. Starting in the fall of this year, the MS in Business Analytics (MSBA) will expand its options to the current full-time MSBA by offering a new AI in Business track. All students will complete an intensive core that focuses on data visualization, machine learning, managing big data, and decision analytics. After the core, students will complete either the Business Analytics track or the new AI in Business track which emphasizes the use of artificial intelligence and network analytics.

GOIZUETA’S NEW MS IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS FOR WORKING PROFESSIONALS

Based on growing demand from companies that want the same intensive MSBA program for their working professionals, Goizueta is launching an MS in Business Analytics for Working Professionals (xMSBA). The part-time program is similar to an Executive MBA format and will deliver an advanced analytics curriculum focusing on machine learning, AI, cloud analytics, and data visualization and also enable students to be come experts on working with big data on the cloud using AWS SQL & NoSQL, Hadoop, Pig and Spark.

The new venture fund will allow Goizueta students to source companies, conduct due diligence, and make investment recommendations in businesses founded by Black, LatinX, and Native American entrepreneurs. The school points to research which shows that while venture capital investments have quadrupled in the past 10 years, the growth has not supported all entrepreneurs. Women and minority founders receive less than 3% of capital investments. Only 1% of VC-backed founders are Black, and less than 2% are Latinx. Black entrepreneurs are rejected for loans at a rate almost 20% higher than white entrepreneurs.

PMVF was recently recognized by AACSB in its 2023 Innovations that Inspire and is part of a larger initiative at Goizueta, including a new DEI concentration for full-time MBA students. The school is focused on building principled leaders who positively influence business and society. “We’re not just getting MBAs,” says Alexia Brown 22MBA. “We are seeing problems like injustice and taking action. Bridging that gap of wealth and inequality in this country is better for our economy. When everyone has access to be the best versions of themselves, we are all better off.”

And so is Goizueta for launching a flurry of innovative programming for students.

Comments or questions about this article? Email us.