News From the University of St. Thomas

ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Business education at the University of St. Thomas -- a hallmark of the university since adding a "commercial course" to its liberal arts curriculum in 1895 -- has earned accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) effective immediately.

Less than 5 percent of the world's business schools hold AACSB accreditation, which is widely regarded as the highest standard of quality for business education and can take years to achieve.   The accreditation also makes credentialed business schools eligible for many of the top rankings of MBA programs and provides their faculty with greater research opportunities.

St. Thomas is the first private college or university in Minnesota to hold AACSB accreditation.  A total of six business schools in Minnesota are accredited by AACSB; the others are at the University of Minnesota and universities in Moorhead, St. Cloud, Mankato and Duluth.

The accreditation will have an impact on more than a third of the students currently enrolled at St. Thomas, the state's largest independent university. Of its nearly 11,000 students, 36 percent, or 3,850, are enrolled in the Opus College of Business.

"This accreditation represents a new high-water mark for business education at St. Thomas," said the university's president, Father Dennis Dease.

"We are committed to the idea that education is an investment, and all good investments should grow over time," said Christopher Puto, dean of the Opus College of Business. "AACSB accreditation clearly adds value to a St. Thomas degree; it is a value not only for current students and future graduates, but for our 31,000 alumni."

Over the past decade, St. Thomas has taken a series of key steps on the path to AACSB accreditation:

• Combined its graduate and undergraduate business divisions into what is now the Opus College of Business.
• Hired Dean Puto in 2002, formerly the business dean at Georgetown University.
• Added a full-time, day MBA program to the graduate curriculum and added or modified other programs to comply with AACSB guidelines.
• Added 52 full-time business faculty members, for a current total of 105.
• Opened two of the most technologically advanced classroom and office buildings in the country. The $22 million Schulze Hall, home of the Schulze School of Entrepreneurship, opened in downtown Minneapolis in 2005. The $25 million McNeely Hall opened in St. Paul in 2006.
• Received a gift of $50 million for business programs from an anonymous donor in 2008 (it had received a similar gift of $30 million a decade earlier).
• Increased the Opus College of Business endowment to $70.1 million.

"Not only is the accreditation a tremendous accomplishment, it was essential for St. Thomas to effectively compete in the future for the brightest and best students and faculty," said Richard Schulze, founder and chairman of Best Buy Co. Inc and a benefactor who chairs the Opus College of Business Strategic Board of Governors and sits on the university's Board of Trustees.

The Opus College of Business offers 13 concentrations at the bachelor's level and seven full- and part-time programs at the master's level.  It is home to a dozen centers and institutes; more than 4,000 students annually participate in non-degree offerings.

"We warmly congratulate St. Thomas and Opus College of Business Dean Dr. Christopher Puto, and welcome them into the AACSB family of internationally accredited business schools," said John Fernandes, president and CEO of AACSB International.

For more information about Opus College of Business, visit http://www.stthomas.edu/business/

For more information about AACSB International accreditation, visit the accreditation section of the AACSB International website at http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/.

SOURCE University of St. Thomas