With MBA, IT Experts Command Bigger Paychecks
New research from the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland shows that information technology professionals with MBA degrees earn 46 percent more than their counterparts with only a bachelor’s degree and 37 percent more than those with any other master’s degree.

“IT experience has a high rate of obsolescence—learning new technologies only makes a professional valuable for a few years when those skills are in high demand,” said Sunil Mithas, an assistant professor of decision, operations and information technologies at the school and lead author of the study. “An MBA education teaches how to evaluate new technologies or how to strategically invest in and manage IT projects, which makes for a more valuable long-term employee that can use those skills in a variety of situations.” The study was published in the journal Management Science.

Business Schools, Goldman Sachs Partner to Help Educate 10,000 Women
The business schools at Cambridge, Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, and Michigan are among 16 initial academic partners in a $100 million project funded by Goldman Sachs to provide a business and management education for up to 10,000 underserved women, predominantly in developing and emerging markets.

Dubbed 10,000 Women, the project will help women learn such skills as marketing, accounting, market research, business plan writing, strategic planning, accessing capital, and e-commerce. Business and management certificates are planned, and it is expected that the program will lead to the conferring of bachelor’s and MBA degrees, as well.

In addition to funding education, 10,000 Women will work to build the capacity of development organizations to expand economic opportunity for girls and young women. The project also includes mentoring and networking.

For example, the Thunderbird School of Global Management will partner with the American University of Afghanistan to create an entrepreneurship program that aids Afghan women in developing the skills they need to start and grow viable businesses.

Another participant, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, will work through its Aresty Institute of Executive Education to design a program for women entrepreneurs that will be delivered in collaboration with local partners, such as the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India.

The University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, Nigeria’s Pan-African University, Brown University, and the United States International University in Kenya, are among other participating schools.

Kellogg Launches Diversity Research Center, Olympics Program
The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University has established a new research center devoted to the study of diversity. The Interdisciplinary Center on the Science of Diversity will promote research and stimulate dialogue by bringing together scholars from Northwestern University and beyond to study the topic and share their findings with the wider community. The center will also produce research that will help businesses to understand and reap the benefits of diversity. The center is sponsored jointly by the Kellogg School and the university’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

In addition, the Kellogg School has committed to sponsor a two-year Olympic Sport Leadership Certification program to instruct both executives from the U.S. Olympic Committee and national governing bodies for U.S. teams in such sports as the triathlon, swimming, wrestling, and speed skating. Spearheaded by the Kellogg School’s Center for Nonprofit Management, the program is targeted at high-performing employees who have the potential to take on leadership roles in Olympic-level sports. In classes at both the Kellogg School’s home campus in Chicago and the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, participants will learn a range of skills in nonprofit management, including board governance, finance, fundraising, marketing, strategy, and performance measurement.

From the Fundraising Desk
The Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University has received $1 million from B. Charles Ames in support of a business plan competition and a speaker series. | Matching $6 million given by philanthropist and school namesake Robert H. Smith, the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland has announced a $12 million PhD program that will increase annual doctoral stipends by 45 percent and provide research and travel support. | The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania has received a $5-million gift from alumni Julie Taffet Moelis and Kenneth D. Moelis for the Wharton Sports Business Initiative, a collaboration among top business leaders, Wharton faculty, and students that generates and disseminates knowledge about the sports industry. | The Edwards School of Business at the University of Saskatchewan has received $2 million from businessman and alumnus Ted Hanlon toward the study of international business. | Vivian M. and Larry W. Carroll have donated $1.25 million to Winthrop University to create a business and trading center that will help students in the College of Business Administration, as well as local businesses, prepare for a global market. | Robert and Patricia Maurer have given $1 million to endow a professorship in accounting in the College of Business Administration at Bowling Green State University. | The University of Wyoming has received the largest private-foundation grant in its history, $3 million from the Daniels Fund to endow a chair in ethics. | William H. Gross, founder and co-chief investment officer of the fund-management company PIMCO, has given $1 million to his alma mater, the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

New Programs
The University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business has teamed with Johnson & Johnson to create an innovative international leadership development program geared to advancing women in the company. | The Thunderbird School of Global Management and Vermont Law School have agreed to create several joint degree programs. Students can combine Thunderbird’s MBA, MA in global affairs, or MS in global management with Vermont’s JD or MS in environmental law. | In New York City, the Department of Management at Polytechnic University has designed a “techno-MBA” program. Drawing on expertise from the school’s faculty in management as well as engineering, applied science, and technology policy, the 54-credit program will focus on leadership and have an approach that connects the worlds of technology and business. | The Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas has started a new program, the Executive Master of Business Administration, designed for Chinese nationals and U.S. citizens working for American companies in China. The program is part of a partnership with Tong Ji University in Shanghai. Over the course of 17 months, students will meet nine times in Shanghai and twice at the University of Arkansas, where students will visit Wal-Mart headquarters, stores, and distribution centers in addition to taking classes. | The National Taiwan University (NTU) and the University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business have signed a cooperation agreement aimed at increasing Asian leadership training. With the City University of Hong Kong, NTU and Berkeley have created the "Berkeley Asia Business Center,” an expansion of existing joint programs with the National Singapore University and Nanyang Technological University. | Fudan University in Shanghai, Korea University in Seoul, and the National University of Singapore have created  a “selective dual-degree MBA program” in which students will choose to pursue two degrees from among those offered by the three schools. | The MIT Sloan School of Management, two universities in Portugal, and a group of Portuguese private corporations have entered into an agreement involving the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, under which Sloan will help the Portuguese institutions strengthen their capacity in business education and management science. | In February, the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business announced plans to replace its existing campus in Singapore with a larger facility. In addition to accommodating increased MBA class sizes and expanded services, the new three-building campus will allow the graduate business school to offer non-degree executive education programs. | The St. Paul, Minnesota-based Bethel University now also offers its blended-format MBA program in Duluth, Minnesota. | At Georgetown University, the McDonough School of Business is adding a new degree track, the Georgetown-ESADE Global Executive MBA program, a partnership between the business school, Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, and ESADE Business School in Spain. | In India, Delhi Business School has opened its new campus in Srinagar. | Dominican University of California is launching a certificate program in sustainable enterprise, targeting individuals who already have either an MBA or several years of management experience but who need additional skills in order to "green" their business. The certificate program is modeled after the university's Green MBA curriculum. | Starting this fall, second-year students at the Yale School of Management will have the opportunity to spend their fall semester studying abroad at one of four partner schools: the London School of Economics, IESE Business School in Barcelona, the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, and Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management in Beijing. | The Brock School of Business at Samford University has announced the creation of the Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership, including an endowed professorship. | The London School of Economics is launching a 21-month masters in management program for those with little or no work experience. | In May, for the first time, Stanford Graduate School of Business will offer a five-day executive education leadership program designed exclusively for women, covering strategies and skills women need to manage their careers and maximize their professional and personal goals. | UCLA Anderson School of Management has created a Master of Financial Engineering program designed to serve students seeking advanced business education with a focus on quantitative finance. | Supply management professionals can now pursue a Web-based master’s degree program in supply chain management’s degree program offered by the University of San Diego and approved by Institute for Supply Management. | The University of Prince Edward Island plans to launch an MBA program this fall. | The Erivan K. Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph's University recently announced a new online MS in Business Intelligence.