Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management consulted top tech companies to design the curriculum for the new one-year MBA program it plans to launch on its New York City tech campus next spring, according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. The new degree program will target engineers and software developers seeking to round out their technical skills with a foundation in management.
LinkedIn Corp. and Deloitte Services LP were among the companies Johnson consulted in deciding how to structure the new program’s curriculum, Johnson Associate Dean for MBA Programs Doug Stayman told the Journal. Employers suggested courses on software development and leadership instruction, including a special focus on persuasion, the Journal reports.
The new program will differ from Johnson’s traditional MBA program in a number of ways. For starters, courses on subjects such as design thinking and digital marketing will be taught in short sessions followed by hands-on experiential learning assignments with startups or established tech companies, in contrast to semester-long lecture formats, according to the Journal report.
Students in the one-year program will spend the first part of their year on Cornell’s main campus in Ithaca, taking summer courses in accounting, strategy and finance, before heading to the Manhattan campus. There will also be a January session in Israel, in which students will spend a few weeks working on a project and learning about the region’s tech industry, the Journal reports.
“If technology really is permeating everything that we do in this information economy, business-school curricula will need to change over time. We’re just trying to get way out ahead of it,” Daniel Huttenlocher, dean and vice provost of the Tech Campus, told the Journal.
Cornell is currently offering graduate-degree programs in engineering and computer science at a temporary location in Google Inc.’s Manhattan office building. The permanent campus will be located on Roosevelt Island. A proposed curriculum for the New York City tech campus is expected to be approved next month.
Applications are currently being accepted for the new program, which was announced in July. Johnson reports that it receives between 40 to 50 inquiries a week and has accepted more than 20 students so far. The inaugural class will have 40 students, the Journal reports.
Read the complete Wall Street Journal article, “Cornell MBA Melds Technology, Management.”
