Meet The New Dean Of Arizona State’s W.P. Carey School Of Business

You mentioned growth of some programs. I wonder if you have any plans for growth in online programs and where you see the Carey School investing there. You have a very highly ranked and well-regarded online MBA. Might we see some other degrees go online or other investments in online?

Definitely yes, we are going to see — and planning to see — growth in online. We have an online MBA. We have an online undergraduate program that is number one in the nation by U.S. News. So we have thousands of students in the online undergraduate program.

We have hundreds in the online MBA. We have just recently launched a summer intake for our online MBA. It’s been going really well.

So the demand for our online MBA is growing, very robust. We also offer specialized master’s programs online already and we plan to grow that: our online master of business analytics, master in supply chain. And we are looking at others, potentially, specialized masters programs. We’re looking at different modalities like async and sync as possibilities. We are also looking and also started to experiment with online certificates.

The idea that you only get a degree online is kind of outdated. We understand today that some students cannot dedicate a full two years or four years to get a degree, and so they want to break it down, or they would benefit from breaking it down into pieces called certificates or credentials. This could be at the undergraduate or graduate level. And so, for example, we just launched a graduate certificate in supply chain, three courses. And if you complete these three courses, you get a pathway toward our master of supply chain online.

So the idea is that you get these credentials and these credentials would end up into a degree down the road. That’s something that is a new approach to online, that it doesn’t have to be a full degree.

What’s one thing, if you could narrow it down, that people should know about business education at Arizona State?

I think it goes back to what I said in the beginning. We are the largest business school in the nation in terms of numbers. At the same time, we are one of the highest-ranked business schools in the nation. It says something about our quality. We are able to marry access and excellence, and we are very innovative in everything we do. And as big as we are, we are still able to maintain our culture of caring for each other, for “business is personal.”

So all of this basically — access, excellence, innovation, and caring for each other — is something maybe some people don’t recognize, they don’t understand that this is what’s going on here. It’s very special. Coming from a different school, I feel this is a very special place with all of the activities, all the innovation that goes on here, the many students that we have here, and yet the seeking excellence in everything that we do. It is very, very special.

And on the flip side of that, is there a myth you’d like to debunk?

We are working very hard to debunk the myth that ASU is the “greatest party school ever.” At least at the undergraduate level, that’s the story that we’ve been told. It’s not that there are no parties here!

But Michael Crow, the president here, has spent the last 20 years completely transforming this university and making it a really top school. He’s able to marry access and excellence, in a school that is very inclusive and at the same time is committed to discovery that creates an impact and takes serious responsibility of our community. This is an amazing university — amazing research is going on here. So I don’t want to say that there are no parties here, but the image of this being kind of the ultimate party school, I think it’s long gone. And so if anybody’s thinking that this is what it is, they should come here and visit with us because amazing things are going on here at ASU and W.P. Carey.

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