Message from Dean Wang
"The university’s most distinctive commitment is to make higher education accessible…[i]ts most compelling commitment is to make the quality of education…competitive."
1973 – Victoria
It all began in 1973, when the University of Houston agreed to open a teaching center in Victoria, Texas to meet the needs of place-bound students in the Gulf Coast region. For many years, UHV has provided quality educational programs to this previously underserved market. For SoBA, the Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting was of particular note, consistently graduating students who earned among the highest scores in the state on the Certified Public Accountant examinations. However, by 1997 UHV had come to recognize that many able students still lacked opportunity, and “accessible” must be defined more broadly to encompass the challenges of location, personal and professional commitments, financial concerns, and historical marginalization.
1997 – Sugar Land
UHV’s School of Business Administration accepted leadership of the Master of Business Administration program at the University of Houston System at Fort Bend (later rechristened University of Houston System at Sugar Land) and began offering face-to-face evening courses at this teaching center. Fort Bend, comprised of suburbs and bedroom communities for nearby Houston as well as significant industry in its own right, is one of the fastest growing regions in the country. Through our program, working professionals could earn a high-quality degree without taking time off from their careers.
1998 – AACSB Candidacy
SoBA made the commitment to seek accreditation by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Given the effort required, it wasn’t an obvious choice for a business school which then boasted only seven full-time faculty and fewer than 400 students. Nevertheless, we believed our students and graduates, as well as their employers, deserved the confidence in our programs which accreditation brings.
1998 – First Foray Online
A SoBA faculty member volunteered to teach our first online course—just to see if it would take off. That first course enrolled more than twice the usual number of students. We quickly saw that the flexible scheduling which online classes allow could make our programs accessible to students whose careers demanded frequent travel, as well as students well beyond our immediate market areas.
1999 – MBA Online
SoBA faculty committed to offer the MBA entirely online.
1999 – Katy
Bolstered by our success in Fort Bend, we agreed to lead the MBA program at a new teaching center in the Cinco Ranch community, later renamed University of Houston System at Cinco Ranch.
1999 – Fourth-Year Bridge MBA Program
We introduced this program to offer international students with three-year bachelor’s degrees an option for completing their MBA without first earning an additional bachelor’s degree in the U.S.
2001 – BBA Online
We began offering the BBA online with concentrations in Management, Marketing, and General Business.
2001 – Unprecedented Growth
MBA headcount enrollment grew over 23% in one semester, passing 500 for the first time.
2002 – New Enrollment Records
MBA headcount enrollment passed 600.
2004 – Best Buy
For the first time SoBA appeared on GetEducated.com’s list of Best Buys in Regional Online MBAs—demonstrating that our graduate program was accessible to students with limited financial resources. Further evidence of our broadening accessibility in this arena came in 2006, when we were included on the Best Buys in Accredited MBAs list.
2005 – AACSB Accreditation
28 full-time faculty and nearly 800 students celebrated our initial accreditation by AACSB International. In their report, our visitation team particularly commended us on our future as "a national leader in distance education and online delivery."
2005 – Faculty Performance
Faculty published 38 refereed journal articles (an average of 1.4 per faculty member). They received a 90% satisfaction rating on student course evaluations.
2006 – #9 Best Buy Online MBA, AACSB
2006 – New Programs
SoBA has introduced two new graduate programs: the Global MBA, which prepares graduates for leadership positions in the global economy; and the Master of Science in Economic Development and Entrepreneurship, a one-of-a-kind program designed to prepare graduates for leadership roles in their local and regional economies. During the coming year, we anticipate introducing a new BBA concentration in Healthcare Administration to meet growing demands within our communities for qualified healthcare administrators. All three programs will be delivered online.
2006 – Princeton Review
Recently, we learned that we would be included in Princeton Review’s Best 282 Business Schools 2007. In October we were notified that we were ranked second among business schools offering the greatest opportunities to minority students.
2007 – Looking Ahead
UHV School of Business Administration aspires to global leadership in quality, innovative, adaptive and technology-driven programs that prepare students from diverse backgrounds for careers in the domestic and international marketplace. By expanding study-abroad opportunities and partnering with institutions around the world to offer our graduate programs in Mexico, Egypt, Spain, China, and the Middle East, we promise our students access not only to the quality education they’ve come to expect from us. We promise them access to the world.
