By Felley Lawson
October 27, 2022
ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – The Hickingbotham School of Business at Ouachita Baptist University is preparing to launch a fully-online Master of Business Administration degree program, set to begin in Fall 2023 pending approval from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
The HLC is Ouachita’s accrediting agency; additionally, the Hickingbotham School of Business is also accredited by the AACSB. It is Arkansas’ only private AACSB-accredited business school.
“There has been significant demand for the HSB to offer this program, first from Ouachita alumni and then from other young adults looking to advance their careers within the context of a faith-based MBA program,” said Bryan McKinney, Ouachita general counsel and dean of the Hickingbotham School. “While we will welcome HSB graduates into the program, we believe it will also meaningfully serve those students who don’t have an undergraduate business degree yet who need further business education to advance in their careers.”
Students can complete the 30-hour MBA in a year; there are no internships required, but a required program-long practicum on entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship will provide three hours’ credit. The degree program’s 10 courses will include Managing Data, Financial Analysis and Valuation, Economic Tools for Managerial Decisions, Telling Your Story: Digital Marketing and Personal Selling, Global Management and Management and the Law. Classes will be divided among HSB professors, business leaders who hold an MBA and visiting doctoral-level professors.
McKinney said, “Our MBA students will hear from some of the Hickingbotham School’s best professors, as well as industry experts with tremendous experience and business acumen, and professors who bring depth of knowledge and diversity of perspective to the program.”
The Hickingbotham School’s executive advisory board provides the program with another distinctive advantage.
“As standouts in their respective fields,” McKinney noted, “board members bring a wealth of experience to leadership of the HSB and are enthusiastic supporters of the MBA program, committed to investing their energy, expertise and resources to support it. We are thankful for their wisdom and encouragement along the way. Likewise, I am grateful for the HSB faculty who embraced and developed this idea into what I believe will become a signature program.”
To learn more about the new MBA program in Ouachita’s Hickingbotham School of Business, contact Bryan McKinney at [email protected] or at (870) 245-5513.