Posted: January 20, 2012

By Philip Newswanger

philip.newswanger@insidebiz.com

Old Dominion University has discontinued its Global Executive Master's of Business Administration degree program, which was launched two years ago.

The web site, http://bpa.odu.edu/gemba/, says the GEMBA has been postponed indefinitely.

"The GEMBA was put on hold due to the economy," said Larry "Chip" Filer, director of ODU's MBA program, and associate professor of economics.

"As you know, executive programs do have high price tags and this is not the best environment for that type of financial and time commitment from the executives."

The College of William and Mary's Mason School of Business executive MBA program costs $79,500 for 20 months while the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business executive MBA program costs $119,500 for 21 months, according to their web sites.

ODU's tuition was originally $58,000 for its executive program, but the university dropped it to $52,000.

"Yes, we did lower the price last year to test the market at $52,000 to see if price was limiting interest," Filer said. "$52,000 was still too high given the economy. I am quite sure that a new price point will be part of the discussion before a re-launch.

"I think the GEMBA faculty put together a really good product. Now it is just a matter of finding the right time to roll it out."

Students in the program attend part-time for 12 months with two international residency weeks, one in China and one in Brazil.

"We did have good interest in the program, so I think there is a demand in the region," Filer said. "It was just very bad timing with the economic conditions.

"As far as its re-emergence, that is really up to Dean Yochum and me," Filer said.

Gil Yochum is dean of ODU's College of Business and Public Administration.

"We are very comfortable with the product and we will just continue to evaluate market conditions for a possible re-launch," Filer said

Nancy A. Bagranoff, the former dean of ODU's College of Business and Public Administration, announced the program in early 2010. She left ODU the same year for the post of dean of the University of Richmond's Robins School of Business.

No courses were ever taught and no students attended the ODU program.

"We started planning the curriculum in 2009 with a January 2011 start date," Filer said. "We never had a first class.

"We did have interested individuals and even a few who had paid deposits, but we pulled the plug on it before it got too far in the process. We refunded the deposits that had been paid and explained the situation to those showing interest.

"The handwriting was really on the wall in mid-2010. This is not the economic environment to try and start an executive program," Filer said. "For those that are established, I think some are hanging in there. However, some have had to suspend admissions the last few years as well."

Bagranoff said in a 2010 interview that the program would help executives think globally and act locally. Seven faculty members had been assigned to teach the courses.

The program was designed for at most 35 students, with classes ranging from 20 to 30 students.

ODU marketed the program to middle and upper management, from 30 to 45 years old, with five or more years on the job.

Bagranoff said ODU's GEMBA subjects were integrated and what students would have learned in the classroom one day could be applied to the student's work environment the next.

Students were supposed to take 45 credit hours of marketing, strategy, organizational behavior, economics and finance, a typical curriculum for most MBA studies.

But ODU boasted that its GEMBA offered a different angle to the traditional MBA approach, saying the program accelerated the learning process by eliminating repetition and redundancy in coursework.

In addition, students could have taken the courses on a more flexible schedule instead of just during fixed days of the week, such as Friday and Saturday, as some programs require, forcing students to be gone from work.

Students had to submit an application, a resume, an essay, a transcript from an applicant's undergraduate studies and a letter from the applicant's employer sponsoring the student.

Students with less than five years of managerial experience in an industry had to take the GMAT, or Graduate Management Admission Test. Students with more than five years of experience were exempt from taking the exam.

No grants, scholarships or loans were available through the university.

Often employers pay for all or a portion of the student's costs, as they deem the MBA accreditation an investment.