NSU to offer Executive MBA degree

For the first time ever, Nicholls State University will offer an Executive Master of Business Administration degree program, with coursework beginning Sept. 8.

The 17-month program is designed to provide full-time business executives and managers the opportunity to earn an MBA while still working full-time.

The deadline for prospective students to apply is the first week of August.

By offering the new degree, Nicholls State joins a long-term trend in business education that began nationally when the first EMBA courses were created in 1975 to enhance the management skills of working executives.

Nicholls State has offered the regular MBA since 1970.

“The EMBA is a logical extension of the MBA,” said Chuck Viosca, assistant dean for graduate and special programs at the Nicholls State University College of Business Administration.

“There’s been a lot of interest in an EMBA program,” Viosca said.

“Some employees can’t advance” in their jobs “without an MBA, but they can’t go through a regular MBA program” because of the time demanded, he said.

Tuition for Nicholls State’s EMBA program is a flat fee of $21,000, which covers classes, books, Saturday lunches, and everything else students require to be enrolled, he said.

Many companies are paying the full cost of the EMBA program for their employees to enroll, he said, in exchange for a guarantee of more years of service at the company.

The EMBA degree offered by Nicholls State differs from the regular MBA in several ways.

First, a prospective student needs to have had full-time work experience, and be currently working full-time.

“We have a minimum work experience requirement,” Viosca said. “It’s designed for employees to get an MBA. We don’t want someone coming from undergraduate school directly.”

Classes will be conducted sequentially, meaning students take only one course at a time. When studying to receive a regular MBA degree, students normally enroll in several different classes each semester, such as accounting and management.

In addition, students begin and complete the EMBA together as a cohort, Viosca said.

He said that the course content in the EMBA classes is the same as that contained in the regular MBA classes. However, the level of instruction in the EMBA program will be higher because the students will have had extensive work experience.

“There will be more discussion of issues” in the EMBA courses, Viosca said. “Instead of hypotheticals, students can talk about their (work experience with their) companies.”

“We’ve put our best and brightest on this task,” he said. “These students will be expecting a lot.”

Finally, none of the courses in the EMBA program will take place on the main Nicholls State campus in Thibodaux. All classes will be conducted online and in the Duet Building branch of Nicholls State University near the Terrebonne Parish Main Library.

Classes in the Duet Building will take place approximately every second Saturday.

The EMBA program will use the Blackboard Online System, which Viosca said allows easy collaboration between students.

“The online (portion) is extremely convenient,” he said. “Half of the value of the EMBA is the convenience.”

Nicholls State is hoping to draw students to its EMBA program from Lafayette to the West Bank of New Orleans.

Viosca said the EMBA tuition at Nicholls State is comparable to the tuition charged for the EMBA programs at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond and at the University of New Orleans.

“UNO’s EMBA courses take place all day Saturday and Sunday,” Viosca said.

He said that LSU’s EMBA program charges considerably more than those offered by Nicholls State, SLU and UNO.