After three years of enrollment growth, the UC Davis Graduate School of Management will move its Bay Area Master of Business Administration program for working professionals to a more permanent facility in Bishop Ranch Business Park in San Ramon, Calif. on Aug. 1.
The school has signed a 64-month lease for a 9,000-square-foot suite, including four classrooms, four meeting rooms, a student common area and a reception area.
“This opportunity to move the program to Bishop Ranch Business Park provides the UC Davis Graduate School of Management with a more permanent, cost-effective and state-of-the-art home for the Bay Area MBA program, and one that will allow us to make even stronger connections with the Bay Area business community and potential students,” said Timothy Akin, senior director of marketing and communications at the Graduate School of Management in an e-mail interview.
The Bay Area Working Professionals MBA program has seen a rise in applicants since its first class of applicants in 2005.
“[Enrollment] has more than tripled since the program opened its doors to its first class of 45 students in September 2005,” Akin said. “Last fall, the program added 77 new students for a total enrollment of 165.“
The Bay Area program is currently renting facilities in the San Ramon Valley Conference Center; the move to the new location is approximately one mile.
The center in San Ramon is just an expansion; nothing will be shut down on the Davis campus, Akin said.
The Bay Area MBA program offers the same program and curriculum as the full-time MBA program on the Davis campus and the Working Professional MBA program in Sacramento, Akin said.
As it offers classes every other weekend, the program is targeted to professionals who want to continue working while earning their MBA.
Current students are enthusiastic about the move.
“I’m excited about [the program] moving to Bishop Ranch because I know the quality of services it has to offer,” said Sonny Aulakh, a UC Davis MBA student from Fremont, Calif.
“I think it’s a move for the better, the program has grown since the time it was originally started,” said Archana Arunkumar, a UC Davis MBA student who works in Pleasanton, Calif.
The average age of an entering MBA student in the Working Professional program is 32, with eight years of work experience, while the average age of an entering student in the daytime MBA program is 29, with five years of work experience, according to the GSM’s website.
The Graduate School of Management will also be moving its full-time MBA program on the Davis campus to the now-under-construction Gallagher Hall, across from the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts in fall 2009, he said.
ANNA OPALKA can be reached at campus@californiaaggie.com.
