Founded in 1887, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP) is a regional four-year public university that serves as a vital employer and institution for its region. A recent academic study described the university’s economic impact on its surrounding community as “irreplaceable,” and U.S. News and World Report has ranked UNCP as the most diverse regional university in the south.
UNCP began working with Academic Partnerships (AP) in 2017 to expand and enhance its Master of Business Administration program, which at the time had a total of 100 on-campus and online students. AP helped UNCP transform its MBA offering into an accelerated, flexible one-year format and strengthen its student recruitment and support services. All online classes are taught by full-time UNCP faculty and are available on a flexible asynchronous schedule. The total cost for the full online MBA degree for a North Carolina resident is under $12,000. This quality, accessibility, and affordability has attracted busy working professionals from around the state, and today more than 1,100 students are enrolled in the program.
With AP’s support, the MBA program has become one of the university’s most successful program in terms of reach, growth, and impact on its surrounding communities:
- With the additional tuition revenue, the business school has increased faculty compensation and recruited new professors.
- Similarly, extra funding has enabled more investment in UNCP’s community entrepreneurship center to support local business people in its nine surrounding counties.
- The university’s profile has risen around the state as the number of highly qualified applicants from Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, and other major metro areas has increased dramatically.
“Academic Partnerships has delivered on everything they said they would do, and more, in terms of program and student support. UNCP could not be more pleased with the relationship and its positive impact on our MBA program, our university, and our community,” says Barry O’Brien, Dean of the School of Business (retired).