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UC announces new, three-year, undergraduate business program

  • Release Date:Wednesday, May 13, 2009
CHARLESTON, WV The University of Charleston, a private, liberal arts institution of 1,400 students – named the No. 1 baccalaureate institution in West Virginia for 2009 by U.S. News and World Report has developed a concentrated undergraduate program for its Jones Division of Business which can be completed by motivated students in three years. Incoming freshmen who qualify would enter this extremely structured program and either graduate in six semesters with a Bachelors of Science in Accounting, Finance, Business Administration, Sport Administration or a combination of two, or then enter the Master of Business Administration and Leadership program for two more years, and depart in five years with a BS and a MBAL.

“This program is the result of a growing a trend in higher education to achieve more value for the students’ dollars,” said UC President, Dr. Edwin H. Welch. “Accountability in the quality of higher education has long been lacking. The University of Charleston’s outcomes-based learning has already taken great strides in the direction of added value. This program creates a planned sequence of courses which has the student exiting in three years. It’s exciting.”

In an era when many parents are resigned to paying five years of tuition, the University of Charleston has established itself as a place where motivated students can, and are encouraged to, graduate in record time.  Since the mid-90s, UC has made early graduation an option through its outcomes-based curriculum, referred to on campus as Learning Your Way.  The results prove the effectiveness of this approach.  Fully 36% of the class of 2008 graduated in less than four years, and 30% of the class of 2009 will do the same.  

If anything, these numbers understate the percentage of students finishing undergraduate work in record time, because they do not include the growing number of UC undergrads who pass directly into graduate programs without receiving a bachelor’s degree.  In 2006, 2007, and 2008, 27 UC students entered the UC School of Pharmacy after two or three years as undergrads (six, 12, and nine respectively), and 11 entered the UC Graduate School of Business in a fast-track program. So far, admissions officials are reporting that 18 UC students will enter pharmacy school in Fall 2009 without earning an undergraduate degree.

For more information or interview requests, call 304-357-4717.