Ready, Set, Succeed
McCombs BBA Program Combines Academic Rigor with Innovative Leadership Opportunities
An Olympian, a Truman Scholar, and a University of Texas
at Austin student body president. What do they all have
in common? They were all recent business undergraduates
at McCombs.
Whatever their major, McCombs BBA students are frequently recognized for their achievements, both in and outside the classroom. And many go on to accomplish loftier goals, attaining C-level offices in some of the best-known companies in the world. Others graduate and pursue their own enterprises, following the entrepreneurial path for which so many Texans are known.
While the business school at UT Austin has a 90-year history of strong academics, in recent years the BBA program has sought to expand that reach, giving students new ways of cultivating business acumen. From enhanced career services and international internship opportunities to a curriculum that increasingly emphasizes writing and presentation skills, McCombs grads are heading into the world ready to become leaders who contribute meaningfully to society.
A SOLID CORE
All McCombs undergraduates begin their major courses of study by completing the business core curriculum classes. This sampling of classes not only gives students a taste of different major possibilities, it provides a strong foundation for whatever field a student chooses to pursue.
“The core contains the essentials of what any business major needs to know,” says Urton Anderson, accounting professor and dean of the undergraduate program.
It consists of two accounting classes (financial and managerial), business law, statistics, marketing, management information systems, finance and management. Two additional core requirements are unique to McCombs: a business communications course that deals with the subtleties of business communications, including e-mail etiquette, memo-writing and making presentations; and a required internship that enables students to put what they’ve learned into practice in a real-world working scenario. (See page 18 for stories about students’ 2006 summer internships.)
But classes in the business core and major field of study are only part of a student’s undergraduate experience. A wide range of classes—from history and science to literature and the fine arts—are requirements of the university core curriculum, which is designed to help students become broadly educated citizens of Texas and the United States. These classes have come into the spotlight following the fall 2004 publication of “The Report of the Commission of 125: A Disciplined Culture of Excellence.” Over the past two years faculty and administrators have been working together to address the first of the commission’s two suggestions: “Develop a new undergraduate core curriculum to better prepare students for lives of accomplishment.”
While this process is just underway, and final curriculum changes aren’t expected for at least two more years, the report sparked a curricular review within the business school. Among the considerations: how to enhance students’ non-academic skills, including leadership, communications, and ethics; how to bring more tenure-track faculty into undergraduate classrooms; and how to decrease class sizes—even as the program received a record number of freshman applications this fall.
“Smaller class size is critical,” says Dean Anderson. “Our students are exceptional and they need to be challenged.” Smaller classes would enable students to write more papers and give more presentations. This type of class work enhances skills the program is working to bolster—writing and communications.
In addition to reducing class sizes, the BBA program aims to bring more tenure-track faculty into undergraduate classrooms. As part of Dean George Gau’s strategic plan, McCombs is working to hire 70 more tenure-track faculty by 2010. This number would add 40 new positions and compensate for retirements and departures during this time frame. All academic departments at McCombs are actively recruiting faculty, and 14 new professors joined the school this year. (See page 7 to read about new faculty members.) While the percentage of BBA classes taught by tenure-track faculty has increased to 34 percent from 25 percent four years ago, the goal is 50 percent.
LEARNING TO LEAD
Another area of emphasis in the undergraduate business curriculum is ethics. Despite the flurry of headline-grabbing ethical slips in corporate America in recent years, teaching ethics isn’t new at the business school. But it doesn’t happen in just one class. “Ethics can’t just be separated into one class,” Anderson says. “It needs to be integrated into the curriculum.”
Whatever their major, McCombs BBA students are frequently recognized for their achievements, both in and outside the classroom. And many go on to accomplish loftier goals, attaining C-level offices in some of the best-known companies in the world. Others graduate and pursue their own enterprises, following the entrepreneurial path for which so many Texans are known.
While the business school at UT Austin has a 90-year history of strong academics, in recent years the BBA program has sought to expand that reach, giving students new ways of cultivating business acumen. From enhanced career services and international internship opportunities to a curriculum that increasingly emphasizes writing and presentation skills, McCombs grads are heading into the world ready to become leaders who contribute meaningfully to society.
A SOLID CORE
All McCombs undergraduates begin their major courses of study by completing the business core curriculum classes. This sampling of classes not only gives students a taste of different major possibilities, it provides a strong foundation for whatever field a student chooses to pursue.
“The core contains the essentials of what any business major needs to know,” says Urton Anderson, accounting professor and dean of the undergraduate program.
It consists of two accounting classes (financial and managerial), business law, statistics, marketing, management information systems, finance and management. Two additional core requirements are unique to McCombs: a business communications course that deals with the subtleties of business communications, including e-mail etiquette, memo-writing and making presentations; and a required internship that enables students to put what they’ve learned into practice in a real-world working scenario. (See page 18 for stories about students’ 2006 summer internships.)
But classes in the business core and major field of study are only part of a student’s undergraduate experience. A wide range of classes—from history and science to literature and the fine arts—are requirements of the university core curriculum, which is designed to help students become broadly educated citizens of Texas and the United States. These classes have come into the spotlight following the fall 2004 publication of “The Report of the Commission of 125: A Disciplined Culture of Excellence.” Over the past two years faculty and administrators have been working together to address the first of the commission’s two suggestions: “Develop a new undergraduate core curriculum to better prepare students for lives of accomplishment.”
While this process is just underway, and final curriculum changes aren’t expected for at least two more years, the report sparked a curricular review within the business school. Among the considerations: how to enhance students’ non-academic skills, including leadership, communications, and ethics; how to bring more tenure-track faculty into undergraduate classrooms; and how to decrease class sizes—even as the program received a record number of freshman applications this fall.
“Smaller class size is critical,” says Dean Anderson. “Our students are exceptional and they need to be challenged.” Smaller classes would enable students to write more papers and give more presentations. This type of class work enhances skills the program is working to bolster—writing and communications.
In addition to reducing class sizes, the BBA program aims to bring more tenure-track faculty into undergraduate classrooms. As part of Dean George Gau’s strategic plan, McCombs is working to hire 70 more tenure-track faculty by 2010. This number would add 40 new positions and compensate for retirements and departures during this time frame. All academic departments at McCombs are actively recruiting faculty, and 14 new professors joined the school this year. (See page 7 to read about new faculty members.) While the percentage of BBA classes taught by tenure-track faculty has increased to 34 percent from 25 percent four years ago, the goal is 50 percent.
LEARNING TO LEAD
Another area of emphasis in the undergraduate business curriculum is ethics. Despite the flurry of headline-grabbing ethical slips in corporate America in recent years, teaching ethics isn’t new at the business school. But it doesn’t happen in just one class. “Ethics can’t just be separated into one class,” Anderson says. “It needs to be integrated into the curriculum.”
