News Archives - 2008

The Augsburg MBA -- five years and counting

For five years, Augsburg College has been helping professionals find their calling at work and in the world through its master's program in business administration. Today, more than 270 students are enrolled in the program at three locations, and the Augsburg MBA continues to grow with offerings in the metro and a potential partnership with the Sinerghia Institute in Moscow. The Augsburg College MBA celebrates its success and looks toward an exciting future with a reception on Friday, Nov. 14 in the Oren Gateway Center.

The Augsburg MBA started in the fall of 2004. The faculty and administration approved the program with the stipulation that it would recruit four cohorts, or between 80 and 100 students, within the first three years. It seems the Twin Cities market was more than ready to accept a new MBA program; in fact, the first four cohorts arrived at Augsburg within four months of the program's inception. The first 84 graduates commenced in 2006.

Augsburg added the MBA program to its Rochester location in 2005, began offering classes at the downtown Minneapolis headquarters of Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in 2006, and plans to start a cohort in Bloomington in January 2009.

Recently Professor Magda Paleczny-Zapp, Chair of the Business Department, and Steven Zitnick, director of the Augsburg MBA, returned from a trip to Moscow where they met with Dr. Michail Ioffe, Rector of Sinerghia Institute and Dr. Larissa Kartashova, Vice Rector, to further develop the potential for the Augsburg MBA to be offered to Sinerghia students. This initiative will be brought to the both the Faculty Senate and the Graduate Academic Affairs Committee following coordination with the Center for Global Education.