From The Florida Times-Union, December 24th, 2009
A diploma just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Employers aren’t hiring much.
And when they do, job competition is vicious throughout much of the private and public sectors.
That’s why two First Coast colleges are teaming up to offer students a post-graduate degree that will hold some serious weight with job recruiters.
“We’re not going middle-of-the-road and vanilla with this,” Joe McCann, dean of the Davis College of Business at Jacksonville University. “We’re doing something that hasn’t been done in Northeast Florida — offering students a master’s degree in business administration at JU and a juris doctorate at Florida Coastal [School of Law]. It’s a bold move, and these students will be taking advantage of a strong partnership between schools.”
The four-year, joint-degree program was announced earlier this month, and students from both schools have already started applying. Business classes are expected to begin in the spring at JU, and law classes will commence in the summer, said Terri Davlantes, vice dean at Florida Coastal.
Davlantes said their private school status helped expedite the agreement.
“We have a lot less red tape to deal with than the public schools,” she said. “The agreement was signed about two months after we first talked, and we’re already rolling.”
She was drawn to the collaboration because of the eclectic slate of classes available after pooling the resources of two schools. Instead of being confined to jurisprudence, candidates will experience a wide world of academia that includes business and resource management. It will also set them apart from their peers who choose either law or business.
“This was a perfect match for us,” Davlantes said. “We have a little they like, and they have a little we like. When we combine these studies, the students are the winners.”
She said JU’s business leadership courses were particularly alluring to professors at Florida Coastal. Most of these candidates will be in leadership positions in their respective fields, Davlantes said, so they need to have a background in portfolio management and resource allocation.
JU administrators, conversely, were intrigued by Florida Coastal’s environmental and international law offerings. McCann said these two disciplines are in particular demand with companies trying to go green or reach out to foreign vendors.
“Times are tough, but susceptibility and law on the international stage are hot,” he said. “Students can go traditional with accounting and corporate tax law, but we want to give them more. Their resumes are going to get second looks with this varied background.”
Prospective students need to meet the qualifications for both schools to enter the program. That includes passing both the GMAT and LSAT.
That’s no easy task, said Gordon Arbogast, associate dean and director of graduate programs in JU’s Davis College of Business.
He teaches the school’s business capstone class, so he knows firsthand that walking away with both degrees isn’t going to be simple.
But the fields of law and business overlap extensively, and a candidate with a background in both can bridge the gap — opening themselves up to more job opportunities.
“The typical MBA is very functional, but this goes one step further,” Arbogast said. “They’ll be well versed in both arenas. When they get a job, I bet they’ll have senior staff members coming to them for advice.
matt.coleman@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4654
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For more information, check-out these links: http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2009/12/07/daily31.html
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-12-4/story/first_coast_colleges_combine_degrees_for_clout
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