The University of Houston-Victoria School of Business Administration’s Strategic Master of Business Administration program has been recognized as a top program in the nation.

Ken Colwell

The Princeton Review included the business school in its The Best Business Schools 2021: Best On-Campus MBA Programs list. The list includes schools from across the country and the world and is determined by using factors including institutional and student survey data.

“Being included on the Princeton Review Best Business Schools list is a great testament to the faculty and staff that our students think so highly of us,” said Ken Colwell, dean of the school. “It is a reflection of the quality program and faculty we have here at UHV.”

The Princeton Review built its list for 2021 based on data from surveys of nearly 24,000 students enrolled in MBA programs at 369 schools, and of administrators at those schools. Several of the lists were based solely on data from student surveys, while other lists were based on data from student and administrator surveys. The student surveys for the Best On-Campus MBA Programs list was based on students who were enrolled in the schools between the 2017 and 2020 academic years.

For the Best On-Campus MBA Programs list, the Princeton Review also reported the top 10 business schools for 18 categories. The UHV School of Business Administration ranked No. 7 on the Greatest Resources for Minority Students category. The categories cover topics that prospective applicants might want to know about, including academics, career prospects and campus diversity. Seventeen of the 18 lists incorporate or are based on entirely on student surveys.

The UHV School of Business Administration is accredited by The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Less than 5 percent of business schools worldwide earn this mark of excellence.

The Strategic MBA program at UHV is a hybrid program where students can take both in-person and online courses and can be finished in as little as one year. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, classes that previously were taught in person were taught online for the 2020 spring and fall semesters to ensure safety protocols.

Concentrations include:

• Accounting
• Entrepreneurship
• Finance
• Human Resources Management
• Management
• Marketing

Jifu Wang

For UHV to be recognized is extremely important because it shows the work the faculty and staff put in to help students be successful, said Jifu Wang, associate dean of the school.

“Our mission is to help people become more capable, so they can meet the challenges in a dynamic world,” Wang said. “It is not just about putting an emphasis on knowledge. Our graduates learn skills needed to do their job, such as communication, interpersonal and social media literacy skills. Our students also use their degrees to make a difference in their companies and communities. This recognition from a respected institution is fantastic, and it is great to see that our students also recognize the work of the school.”

Ronald Salazar

The student enrollment has grown steadily and has led the school to increase its faculty size, which means even more resources for students, said Ronald Salazar, a professor of management. Students in the Strategic MBA program are working professionals who want to learn additional skills to move up or into new careers, and this national spotlight could bring in more professionals to UHV who want to take the next step in their careers.

“The faculty have revisited and revised some of our programs and evolved our curriculum to a higher degree for our students,” Salazar said. “This recognition adds momentum to our growing MBA program at UHV.”