The Year of Collaboration

Dean’s Blog – January 2018

“The Year of Collaboration” (Hopefully, the first of many!)

Happy New Year from the Hull College of Business!  As 2018 is upon us, we expect this to be another great year for the College, following a fantastic year in 2017.  The Hull College has been named by the Princeton Review as one of the top 267 business schools and the website “topmanagementdegrees.com” named Hull one of the top 10 most affordable MBA programs.   On February 25-27, we have what is called a “Continuous Improvement Review” or CIR, conducted by our business school accrediting body known as the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).  AACSB is the top accreditation available to business schools and it signifies excellence in business education.   Business Schools are visited every five years by AACSB to insure excellent business education is being provide by the institution.

In preparation for this visit, we prepared a fifty-page report for AACSB and its visit team.  The theme of our report is “Better Together”, highlighting how the Hull College of Business collaborates with its constituencies to provide outstanding business education.  As we kickoff 2018, I would like to highlight a few Hull College collaborations and indicate how we plan to expand them in the coming year.   Augusta University recently released its new Strategic Plan with the title “Beyond Boundaries”, demonstrating AU’s emphasis on not being constrained by traditional academic boundaries and the Hull College is following AU’s lead through its collaborations.

I am extremely proud to first present the collaboration with the AU-Health Sciences campus that has occurred since we have become a consolidated institution.  In recent years, we have developed joint programs with the medical school (MD-MBA), dental school (DMD-MBA), and graduate school (PhD-MBA).  Our faculty are collaborating with the Health Sciences faculty to connect cutting edge academic research at the intersection of health care and business.  As we move forward, next year, the Hull College will be introducing a concentration in Healthcare Management and in the coming months, we will be providing executive education in business acumen for doctors in the AU Health System.

We are most proud of our collaborations with the local business community.  Our vision for the Hull College is to be the “Business School for Business” and to have the business community totally integrated with the Hull College.  We are excited to have representatives of Textron Specialized Vehicles, ADP, Club Car, and Georgia Power along with representatives of the accounting firms, Cherry Bekeart and Serotta Maddocks Evans (SME) on the College’s Strategic Planning Committee.  In addition, representatives of those firms and many others are on the College’s Advisory Board.  In addition to providing guidance and feedback to the College, local business executives frequently serve as guest speakers in our classes and mentors to our students. We also are extremely grateful for the many businesses who work with our students and faculty on class projects and provide our students with valuable real-world experience through internships.

In addition to collaborating with businesses and internal AU units, the Hull College internally embraces the collaboration spirit. We openly collaborate with students to provide them with a meaningful and rich educational experience that includes undergraduate research, study abroad, internships, and professional development opportunities.  Hull College faculty collaborate with colleagues around the world to provide businesses with valuable research.  And finally, as we enter 2018, watch for the Hull College of Business potentially collaborating with other Universities and Business Schools in the state and region to bring new programs to the region.

If you would like to see more about my thoughts about what is ahead for the Augusta business community in 2018, please see my January 7th column in the Augusta Chronicle Business Section.  You can find my column in the Augusta Chronicle every other Sunday and previous columns (since May 2017) can be found online.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/columnists/business/2018-01-06/franza-predictions-resolutions-2018

We’re looking forward to a great 2018 at Hull and hope you will join us!