MBA for teaching college?

I was reading another thread here where it was said that an MBA does not give 18 credit hours in any one area or concentration, which to me sounds like you would not be eligible to teach with an MBA.

This is a bit disconcerting to me because this was something I hoped to do with an MBA. I’m not sure if I agree that an MBA does not offer a concentration as I would consider business administration a field of study in of itself.

Management for example would be an area I would think I could teach in as every subject I have take almost has started with the word “Managerial”. Like Managerial Accounting, Managerial Finance, etc.

So am I missing something here?

 

Not all MBA'a offer concentrations or some may take a "general" MBA approach. Without 18 grad credits in an area, you are not qualified to teach. I do think it is up to the hiring school to evaluate if a Managerial Accounting class is a management or accounting class. Some base their decisions on the course prefix.

 

Course prefixes on my MBA are all "BUS" regardless of the course. So I'm kind of at a loss there. Any ideas?

 

A general MBA will qualify you to teach general management core courses. I have also seen situations where a general MBA combined with actual experience in the field (e.g., marketing) qualifies one to be a marketing professor. If you want to be sure, you could always take additional major courses beyond the minimum requirement for the concentration or take a few "loose courses" elsewhere to meet your 18 hour requirement.

 

In my experience - Ted is correct. I had no problem getting adjunct gigs once I had my MBA. My concentration was management, and before I started Ph.D. studies, here is a list of courses I taught:

Business Law
Business Communications
English Comp I & II (at an ACICS accredited school)

I took a short break between the MBA and my doctoral work with Capella.

 

Before I started on my DBA program, I was adjunct teaching at Keller Graduate School of Management in their MBA and MPM (Master of Project Management) program. I was teaching project management and contract management courses. All I had was an MBA, professional certification in project management (PMP), professional certification in contract management (CPCM), publications, conference presentations and over 20 years in DoD project management and contract management. They were not concerned about 18 credit hours in any area. I imagine it depends on your experience. In my MBA program way back when, my accounting professor was only an MBA/CPA. But he also ran his own accounting firm.

 

Depends on where and what

My wife earned her MBA in the 70's and she spent about 15 years in the 90's and 00's teaching programming and database administration at a community college. Her Bachelors in math with a minor in CS probably got her in the door, but the MBA enabled her advancement to program chair etc.

For every "you can't", there is someone who did. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't prepare with good advice from those who have been there.

 

How general is that 18 units rule? Is valid in every state? Even in private institutions? Is it enforced equally by all universities?

 

The 18-hr. rule is an accreditation agency rule of the Southern Association (AL, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, TX, and VA) www.sacs.org . To the best of my knowledge, the North Central Association (AZ, AR, CO, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, NE, NM, ND, OH, OK, SD, WV, WI, and WY) www.ncahlc.org has a 15-hr. rule and the other accreditors have every right to make their own rules.

Middle States Association www.middlestates.org
New England Association www.neasc.org
Northwest Commission www.nwccu.org
Western Association www.wascweb.org

 

Ted has good info, as always. I've heard that SACS is very strict.

Some schools are looser with the rule, especially community or junior colleges. For general business classes, undergrad lower-division, just an MBA should be ok. It would not be ok for accounting or statistics, in all probability.

However, most schools have very few lower-division general business classes. Most marketing and finance classes (to name two) are usually junior/senior level. In addition, if you just have an MBA you will be limited in what you can teach compared to someone with a PhD, DBA or 18 grad credits in Marketing or Finance etc. And that makes those folks more flexible. Administrators and Deans like flexibility and they like getting more for their money (more experienced, higher education etc).

I have learned this by experience, which is why I'm finishing my 18 grad hours in Finance to go along with my 30 years of finance industry experience and MBA. I now have two years' experience in online teaching.

To summarize, you can maximize your chances of being hired by 1) having at least 18 grad hours in the specific sub-section of business admin that you wish to teach 2) having teaching experience 3) having industry experience and 4) having a knowledge of how online learning works and teaching-platform knowledge. I only had two out of four to start. Keep working at it and you'll get hired.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

Hey Ted, I know your the expert on this one. Say you already have a MS degree in a particular area but you wanna expand would a CAGS 18 credit suffice? I mean would I have to get another master's degree in the related field in order to branch out teaching? I have two masters one in CJ and the other in PUBA, the CAGS in Homeland Security at either AMU or NCU interest me.

 

I doubt you would need a new master's before pursuing the CAGS in Homeland Security. AMU's Graduate Certificate in Homeland Security can be done in lieu of (before), as part of (during), or on top of (after) the Master's in Homeland Security. So, clearly, you're a good candidate for admission there. While Northcentral University's CAGS in Homeland Security requires a master's for admission, nowhere does it say that your master's has to be in Homeland Security. As Criminal Justice and Public Administration are both concentrations within the DBA/PhD in Business Administration at Northcentral University, as is Homeland Security, your existing master's degrees are likely adequate credentials for admission to the CAGS Homeland Security.

 

Is that all? And they let you teach?




(I'm joking of course.)

 

As always Ted you da man.