New Global Business Minor

It’s a tough world out there. And it’s especially tough if you are trying to advance your career in business without the right educational credentials. Business places a premium on applicants with training in business-related disciplines. What is a student to do if he or she wants to pursue the non-business major of his or her passion and still be competitive in the workplace?

The traditional answer has been the business minor. But the traditional business minor requires the student to focus on a specific discipline. To be competitive in a wider field of career opportunities, the applicant may need a broader understanding of business and less familiarity with FASB accounting rules. Until recently, a solution for this type of student has been elusive. But now, an answer appears on the horizon.

The global business minor includes 5 courses:

ENTR 3310 Introduction to Entrepreneurship
ENTR 3312 Introduction to Intrapreneurship
INTB 3351 History of Globalization
INTB 3352 Politics of Globalization
INTB 3353 Economics of Globalization

True to its tagline – “For The Real World of Business”—the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston (UH) will launch a new global business minor designed for the non-business major. “We already offer business minors,” notes Frank Kelley, Director of Undergraduate Business Programs at Bauer. “The difference is that our current minors require a concentration in a technical discipline such as accounting, finance or business administration. The purpose of this new global business minor is to give non-business majors a broad understanding of the business process, both for corporate and entrepreneurial business, along with an understanding of the historical, political, and economic context within which business operates.” Dan Steppe, Director of Bauer’s Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, added that “The entrepreneurial component is especially important for students who plan to work in the Houston area because a majority of businesses in Houston are entrepreneurial. Providing this broad understanding of the business process and globalization will add value for students of all majors - in the technical disciplines as well as liberal arts and social sciences.”

There are over 34,000 undergraduate students enrolled at the UH. Approximately 5000 of these students have yet to select a degree plan. The new global business minor was created to allow students interested in pursuing a non-business discipline to do so and still develop broad business acumen and the credentials necessary to compete in today’s fierce employment market. Jamie Belinne, Bauer’s Executive Director of Career Services put it this way - “The global business minor will give students a broader perspective and context for making business decisions that better position those same students for advancement in their chosen careers”. In addition to having a minor in global business, students will also receive a certificate in intrapreneurship - a term coined to describe the employee within an organization who understands the perspective of the CEO. Students receive the certificate as part of the minor upon completion of one course on entrepreneurship and one on intrapreneurship.

“Two things make this minor unique. First and foremost, students learn from entrepreneurs and corporate leaders who have real world business experience. Second, students enhance this first-hand insight into the business process by studying different aspects of the global business environment. Professors from three outside disciplines—history, economics, and political science—have been brought in to the business school to share their broad knowledge about how globalization shapes and is shaped by business and the economy. Our goal is to impart a global understanding of how business works – an understanding immediately applicable to a job in the new global economy,” added Tyler Priest, Director of Global Studies.

Bauer College currently has over 6000 students enrolled and its newly re-modeled facilities are filling fast. Especially popular have been Bauer’s Centers of Excellence which give students real world exposure to business guided by industry experts. Equally popular are its MBA and Executive MBA programs. “We’re faced with a bit of a dilemma” mused Bauer dean, Dr. Arthur Warga. “We have identified a clear need among our students to develop marketable skills necessary for success in today’s competitive workplace. The new business minor program will certainly contribute toward addressing that need. The program will also likely be very popular thus taxing our current classroom capacity.”

The Bauer School of Business requires a minimum 2.75 grade point average to be admitted into its undergraduate degree program. The new business minor program however, will use the standard UH threshold of 2.0, so that any student in good academic standing at the UH would qualify to pursue this minor. The increased access to students and the benefits of having a business minor incorporated into a liberal arts or other non-business major are expected to generate very high student interest.

To address the space challenges associated with the anticipated increase in the student population as well as make the program more accessible, a novel approach is employed in terms of delivering the course material. The globalization courses use a hybrid model of delivery. Simply put, students spend about half of their class time in the classroom and the rest of the time accessing the course online, monitored by the instructor and graduate teaching assistants. The hybrid model combines the benefits of both the traditional lecture and online instruction, and it is popular with working students who need flexibility.

The five courses for the minor are already being offered and the global business minor itself has been approved for launching this coming fall 2006 semester. “Growth and progress always bring with them new challenges. We may experience explosive growth in Bauer’s student population that will test our abilities. But, we will have made significant progress toward meeting the needs of our students and the businesses that rely on Bauer to provide a highly-skilled workforce,” commented Warga.