Woodbury highlighted in San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s MBA: Year of COVID – Schools Teaching Virtually to an Eager Incoming Class
A recent special report in the San Fernando Valley Business Journal showed that regional MBA programs have successfully pivoted and have not experienced a decline in student enrollment despite the challenges of the pandemic. The encouraging news appeared in reporter Amy Stulick’s article, “MBA: Year of COVID-19,”(Sept. 14, 2020), which included quotes from leaders from local MBA programs, including Woodbury’s Dr. Satinder Dhiman, MBA Chair and Director and Associate Dean of the School of Business.
Stulick’s research found that “Master in business administration programs in the Valley region have not seen a decrease in enrollment as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, leaving administrators pleasantly surprised after months of uncertainty. In fact, numbers have either met expectations set prior to March or exceeded predictions, some program directors said, despite a lack of in-person networking and classroom connections — hallmarks of the MBA experience.”
Dr. Dhiman was quoted saying, “It’s like building the plane while flying. We were able to adjust our course right away. Immediately we worked with IT. Within a week we were able to obtain an institution-wide application called RingCentral — it’s an application powered by Zoom. That provided us the platform to deliver our courses online.”
He also pointed out some of Woodbury’s differentiators, including the MBA program’s commitment to civic engagement and efforts to double down on community service in the face of not only a pandemic, but widespread civil unrest, global warming and the homelessness crisis.
“Our goal in the MBA program is not just to give them information about how to make money, how to be rich, how to sell stock,” said Dr. Dhiman. “We want to sensitize them with social problems because they will be living in society as leaders, they will be running organizations.”
He added that Woodbury’s strong social and moral responsibility message attracts a lot of individuals looking to join or start their own nonprofit, and 60 percent of its students are female.
The full article can be found here.