<i>BusinessWeek</i>: Lehigh's part-time MBA program is No.1 in Mid-Atlantic region

	Lehigh's collaborative part-time MBA program allows faculty like Robert Kuchta, professor of practice in the marketing department, to work more closely with their students both in and out of the classroom.

Lehigh University’s part-time MBA program has been named one of the nation’s best by the editors of BusinessWeek magazine. Released Thursday evening during a live, online chat, Lehigh earned the top spot in the Mid-Atlantic region—and placed in the top five nationally.

For years, BusinessWeek has been ranking the nation’s most outstanding full-time MBA programs. This is the first time that the magazine has extended its coverage to recognize the finest part-time MBA programs throughout the United States.

“Though I am relatively new to the Lehigh community, I continue to be impressed with its enthusiastic commitment to business education,” says Paul R. Brown, dean of the College of Business and Economics since this past July. “The program remains competitive and is increasing its stature because of its integrated curriculum, which is designed specifically to meet the demands of the market.”

Lehigh excelled in a few categories. The program ranked in the top 10 in both academic quality and student satisfaction, and scored an “A” in both teaching quality and curriculum from its students.

The complete article and interactive rankings chart, as well as Lehigh’s part-time MBA profile, can be found on BusinessWeek’s Web site.

“We are very proud of being named to this list, which reflects the strength of our faculty, staff and students,” says Mary Theresa Taglang, director of graduate programs at the College of Business and Economics. “It also demonstrates that our greatest asset is our size. We’re a small and highly-collaborative community of professionals, with faculty who have already made contributions in industry and have experiences that they can bring into the classroom.”

Despite Lehigh’s position in the rankings, Taglang suggests there are more important avenues for students looking to make sure that Lehigh is the right fit. She recommends speaking with alumni, who she says are in the best position to talk about the impact of a Lehigh MBA. A visit to Lehigh’s campus to talk with faculty and students and to get to know the graduate office staff is also a good idea, she adds.

The program has seen significant growth over the past few years in many areas. Its student selectivity continues to increase, as does its average GMAT scores. The part-time program is also experiencing its highest retention rates and the graduate programs office is fielding a larger number of inquiries and applications than ever before.

But Brown believes there is still work that needs to be done.

Having served as both the associate dean for executive MBA programs at New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, as well as academic director for the TRIUM Global Executive MBA program, he has unusual insight into business graduate education.

“High quality, part-time MBA programs are an important investment in one’s professional development. We’re looking to continually improve our program, which is why we launched an ambitious review of our MBA program just a few months ago,” said Brown. “It was one of my top priorities when I arrived here at Lehigh.”

Lehigh’s MBA offering is being comprehensively evaluated to ensure the program continues to meet the demands of the market and offers as high quality a business education as is expected from Lehigh.

“We’re on the cusp of something great here at Lehigh,” says Brown. “We have an obligation to the Lehigh community to take the college to the next level—and we’re in a position to do just that.”

--Tom Yencho