The Fletcher School will launch the low-residency online program aimed at mid-career professionals next year
The Fletcher School will launch a new digitally mediated business degree program aimed at working professionals in May 2019.
Students will be able to complete the Master of Global Business Administration (GBA) in eighteen months to three years, with each student setting his or her pace. Fletcher faculty will teach weekly live classes of fifteen to eighteen students and develop interactive coursework on an online platform that’s accessible on mobile devices, allowing students to complete their assignments from nearly anywhere. The program will include two residential sessions, expected to be three days each, one at Fletcher and the second at an international location.
The curriculum will combine graduate-level courses covering cutting-edge topics in business with the study of the “global context,” including geopolitics, law, negotiations, and economics. It is being designed for mid-career business professionals who want to gain broader knowledge of how to do business in the world, as well as leaders applying business principles in public institutions and non-governmental organizations in the U.S. and around the globe.
“As the oldest exclusively graduate school of international affairs in the United States, the Fletcher School has a long-standing commitment to educating leaders with a global perspective,” said James Stavridis, F83, F84, dean of the school. “Fletcher has been a pioneer of transformational international education, and I couldn’t imagine a better moment to launch an online program to further the global impact of our faculty, students, and alumni.”
Fletcher currently offers one online graduate program in international affairs, the Global Master of Arts (GMAP), which started nearly twenty years ago and can be completed in twelve months with three two-week residencies. The school also offers a two-year residential master’s degree in international business (MIB), alongside its largest degree program, the two-year residential master’s degree in law and diplomacy (MALD), and other master’s and doctoral degrees. It has also created the inter-disciplinary Digital Planet research initiative, where “digital innovation meets the world.”
The GBA will be led by Fletcher’s Institute for Business in the Global Context in partnership with 2U, a leading online program management company, which will provide digital marketing, course production, and technical support. The Fletcher School will be responsible for admission decisions and the education program. The school plans to add administrative staff and faculty as needed to respond to the expected increase in overall enrollment as the program grows.
