A survey of 759 graduating MBAs from 11 top U.S. business schools revealed that a company’s corporate social responsibility performance is a major factor when they select whom to work for, reports BusinessGreen.

The graduates expect to make an annual salary of $103,650 from their first employer, but 97 percent said they would be willing to sacrifice up to $15,000 to work for a company with an exemplary environmental performance, ethical business conduct and good employee and stakeholder relations.

The survey was conducted by David Montgomery of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Catherine Ramus of the University of California Santa Barbara. They used an anonymous online survey to limit bias in the survey.

Source : itbusinessedge.com

Walk through the halls of the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business during the school year, and along with students cramming facts for macroeconomics and operating strategy you may encounter some students stretching their bodies and doing something really unusual for business school students: relaxing.

They’re members of Chicago’s yoga club, a student group founded earlier this year by two GSB students and which last term attracted 15 to 35 regular attendees to classes in the school’s Harper Center. The classes are “time to shut your brain off,” says Jody Kirchner, one of the group’s founders.

The Chicago GSB yoga classes reflect a growing popularity of yoga in the U.S., with about 16 million Americans engaging in the practice, according to statistics released by Yoga Journal. The publication said $5.7 billion is spent annually on yoga classes and products, nearly twice as much as four years ago.
Indian Odyssey

During a school-sponsored trip to India last year, Kirchner and fellow student Doug Neal bonded over a mutual interest in yoga. Kirchner and Neal, who both had been practicing yoga for years before they met, eventually decided to start a group dedicated to the practice on campus—after Kirchner noticed that other business schools had yoga groups, but Chicago didn’t.

In midyear, Neal, a 2008 MBA graduate, and Kirchner, a rising second-year student and co-chair of the club, conducted an interest survey for the group. Of the 1,100 students attending the school, about 200 expressed interest.

Kirchner said she was surprised at the large response the survey garnered, finding that a sizable portion of the student population already practiced yoga, at least to some extent. “People I know outside of school say the same thing,” she said. “After a stressful day, it’s time they can do something easily to take their mind off their stress.”

Neal says yoga isn’t just for stress relief. “Yoga is very multifaceted, and the benefits of yoga are different for each person,” he said. “Some use it for exercise, for meditation poses, some for relaxation, some for injuries.”

There were 22 MBA Vietnamese graduates and eight BA Vietnamese graduates in these first classes receiving the degrees of the University of Bolton. The degrees are recognized by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Deborah Clarke, British consul general in HCMC, said there would be plenty of opportunities for Vietnamese graduates as Vietnam’s economic success and integration into the global economy is fuelling demand for well-educated managers who are able to operate in a global market-place.

She added education is one of the five key pillars of the UK’s relationship with Vietnam and that the collaborative partnership between the two universities will help to create a critical mass of skilled professionals with an international outlook in Vietnam as well as further strengthen educational links between the UK and Vietnam and promote understanding between the two countries.

Working in partnership with HCMC University of Banking, the University of Bolton has delivered the programs in HCMC since 2006. The programs include Bachelor of Accounting, Bachelor of Business Administration, and transfer program for Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration.

An enrolment seminar for these programs will be held at 8:30 a.m. on July 19 at Kim Do Hotel, 133 Nguyen Hue Boulevard, District 1, HCMC. For details, contact the Center for International Cooperation of the HCMC University of Banking (2nd floor, 39 Ham Nghi Boulevard, District 1, tel: (08) 821 4660, ext: 101).

More : english.vietnamnet.vn

The QS World MBA Tour, the world’s leading series of career and education events, will organize a one-day fair for aspiring MBAs in the capital tomorrow.

The MBA fair will be held at the Hyatt Regency (Ring Road) in New Delhi tomorrow between 2 pm and 6 pm.

More than 30 B-Schools from across the globe including Toronto -Rotman, IE Business School, Bond, Cornell-Nanyang, Ashridge Business School, Hult, U21 Global, Durham and ESMT will participate in the MBA fair.

The London School of Business & Finance, the only UK based institution to offer dual programmes combining an internationally recognised MBA or MIB with ACCA, CIM, CIMA or CFA qualifications, will also be a part of the MBA fair.

Participants of the QS World MBA Tour, which will visit 50 cities in 32 countries this year, include 17 of the top 20 US business schools and all of the leading European business schools.

The fair will provide students a chance to interact with the leading international business schools and short-list the best option available to them.

Nunzio Quacquarelli, Managing Director of QS told NNE, “It is the perfect chance to make an impression face-to-face with the very people reading your application forms, and that is invaluable to gain an edge in this tough field. The QS World MBA Tour provides the best step in the application process, the opportunity to ask intelligent, tailored questions on topics like personal fit, career opportunities, school specializations and financial aid.”

More : indiaedunews.net

Maher Bird Associates has been appointed to handle the AA’s £25m integrated advertising account. The agency beat incumbents Delaney Lund Knox Warren and Rapier to win the business.

The AA kicked off a “root and branch” review of its agency roster last year, as exclusively revealed by Marketing Week (September 27, 2007). The move followed the completion of the company’s merger with Saga and the appointment of Michael Cutbill as marketing director.

DLKW was previously responsible for the roadside assistance business, while Rapier handled personal loans and motor insurance products. But MBA has secured the entire consolidated account following the pitch, which is likely to lead to a greater emphasis on direct response in the brand’s communications.

Saga and the AA are still looking to consolidate their media planning and buying into one agency. Incumbents Carat and Phd are thought to be competing against several non-roster agencies for the account.

Cleveland State University again ingenuity for business in the spring of this year, or at least four talented students. Four talented Cleveland State interests Minority MBA students Nance College of Business Administration, the fourth in a national contest sponsored by Key Bank: 2008 Share of minority student MBA Case Competition. 1 In 3rd Place went to Indiana University, Carnegie Mellon and Ohio State University, respectively. One crew member, Martha Muhammad, the House adopted the award for best animation in the national competition.

The contest, which was sponsored by a partnership between Ohio State’s Fisher College of Business Administration and Key Bank, the plant took place in Key Banks, Key Tower, is located in the heart of Cleveland. While the field of home advantage did not play a major role in the success of the group, the CSU, a student in business administration at the capacity for analysis and representation of the real world of the business environment. This year’s competition develops at Key Bank Consumer Banking unit. The bank, which has a sparse presence in the low-density branch, the slow growth of the market, in turn, that the college to formulate short - and long-term approaches to the development of new markets in sales growth in which Key Bank already has a significant presence in the least developed markets where their presence is of a smaller scale.

The team is the CSU against 12 other teams of prestigious high schools of Business Administration, Miami University, Rice University, Cleveland own Case Western Reserve University, and the superiority of the University of Chicago, to name only a few. The four students within the team; Martha Muhammad, Celestine Ilori, Elizabeth Tsai, and Marvin Warner, employs three points of the strategy of competition, offering a proposal for mergers and acquisitions, Key Bank South Western market, membership to employees of the retail trade for on-the-spot - Centre of the bank in stores like Target and Whole Foods, and development of young Key Banks online banking. Elad Granot, Cleveland State Assistant Professor of Marketing, which served as adviser to the group and each of them has, in its various business courses. Hochgesteckten expectations in advance, as the team competition, and most of all accounts lived up to them. “Our team believes Martha had a chance to win that Award (Best Presenter), and we were pleased to discover she did,” said Elizabeth Tsai, that their colleagues in the équipe’s remarkable performance.

Nance College of Business at the Faculty had many reasons to rejoice in March, and an estimate of members of the Faculty and, in particular, as a group more aware of excellence.

“We are proud of the performance of our students in the MBA Case Competition Key Bank. His capacity for analysis of the real problems in the business world and develop effective plans to solve these problems is evident from the results of the competition, “said Robert S. Scherer, Ph. D, Dean of the College of Business Nance.

Congratulations are in order. The success of these talented individuals to the CSU, even a proud service. Whether you are a student or a member of the faculty, a business major or not yet declared, these little bright lights (and maybe future members of the Fortune 500?) At the State University of Cleveland gives the whole campus is one reason to be proud.

At first glance, a law degree and a business degree may seem like very different academic achievements. After all, business schools encourage students to identify opportunities and capitalize on their potential, the essence of entrepreneurship, while at its heart the study of law involves research and creative thinking to find answers to legal problems.

When combined, however, the two result in a potent combination of knowledge, experience and skills - a mix that is increasingly popular for Canadian students and employers.

About a dozen Canadian universities offer programs that combine a bachelor of laws degree (LLB) with a master’s degree in business administration (MBA). The programs usually involve four years of study: two years in law, one in business and one year combining the two areas.

More : theglobeandmail.com

- University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff was elected yesterday as one of the three independent members of a panel that will investigate whether Mylan executive Heather Bresch earned an M.B.A. degree at West Virginia University.

Mr. Burkoff, who specializes in criminal law and legal ethics, was elected by WVU’s faculty senate, along with former University of Missouri-Columbia Provost Lori Franz and former Pace University business school Dean Arthur Centonze.

They will join WVU professors Roy Nutter and Michael Lastinger, who were appointed Jan. 2 when WVU Provost Gerald E. Lang formed a three-member panel.

Mr. Lang’s third pick, West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission Vice Chancellor Bruce Flack, resigned this month after the faculty senate voted at its Jan. 14 meeting to recommend that he be replaced by three people with no ties to the university or state government. The senate’s vote reflected concern that the panel’s findings would not be credible unless a majority of its members were independent.

Mr. Burkoff has taught at Pitt since 1976 and has law degrees from the University of Michigan and Harvard. He was nominated by WVU law professor Patrick McGinley.

More : post-gazette.com

Mount St. Marys College (MSMC) is launching a Master of Business Administration degree program beginning in fall 2008. The program will be offered on weekends and features a cross-disciplinary curriculum and a study-abroad requirement.

Mount St. Marys College brings a 60-year history of excellence in business education to the new MBA program and is ranked by U.S. News & World Report among the top 20 regional universities with masters programs in the west for 2008. This new graduate business program builds on the strengths of faculty in the Business Administration Department, said College Provost Eleanor Siebert. The MBA joins the Mounts current six graduate degree programs designed to promote leadership and foster a spirit of service to others.

Mark Alhanati, chair of MSMCs Business Administration Department, said, This program is aimed to answer the criticism that MBA program graduates are not able to solve complex, ambiguous problems that cut across different areas.

More : businesswire.com

No matter what else has happened to Minnesota’s higher and lower educational enterprises in this decade, one trend line has kept climbing: The numbers of Masters in Business Administration programs in the Twin Cities and seekers of MBA degrees has been steadily increasing.

The latest: Hamline University in St. Paul, the state’s oldest post-secondary school, will launch its MBA program in January. By its count, it will bring the number of such programs available in the Twin Cities to 13.

Success breeds scrutiny — and criticism. That, too, has been on the uptick in business education around the country. Perceived deficiencies in graduate business programs have been assailed as contributors to corporate failings ranging from the Enron collapse to the subprime mortgage crisis. The programs are faulted as insufficiently attentive to global realities, ethical imperatives and leadership that goes beyond the bottom line.

More : startribune.com