EIU MBA Online

ACCESSIBLE AND FLEXIBLE TO FIT YOUR NEEDS

The MBA Online at Eastern Illinois University is designed so that students complete their program of study in two calendar years over six consecutive semesters.  Two classes are offered each term.  The tentative schedule of course offerings, with two sample entry points and different degree completion plans is provided at our site related to Courses. 

MBA Online Classes are held in an asynchronous* approach so that students are provided the flexibility of listening to lectures, reading materials, and uploading assignments within the course semester dates WITHOUT having to attend live sessions to meet course requirements.

All MBA Online classes are taught by full-time, doctoral qualified faculty from EIU's School of Business.  These graduate faculty are the same faculty teaching in our face-to-face MBA program and supporting our undergraduate business students in classes face-to-face and online.  

We are happy to schedule appointments in numerous formats or answer questions about the program and your application at (217) 581-3028 or by email at mba@eiu.edu. The MBA Coordinator is available to answer your questions via Skype Appointment for a live video conversation as well as for 30-minute or longer phone appointments.  We also offer face-to-face meetings with the MBA Coordinator in Charleston or Champaign. 

*Our MBA Online program courses are designed with activity deadlines, but do not require "live" synchronous classes that meet at a specified time each week.  There will be specified exam windows that will be announced in each course for specific days and hours, typically held in evenings between 5 - 9 pm CST, or during weekend hours as determined by each professor. Faculty may offer live office hour appointments via Skype, and possibly conduct voluntary class sessions in a live format.  However, most course material will be taped lectures by the faculty instructing the course, videos, reading materials, discussion boards and the like will be available for you to view and consume with the flexibility to do so as you prefer.

Since June 2016, EIU's School of Business has offered the MBA degree in a completely online format.  We offer flexibility so that students can join the program at numerous entry points, depending on their need and course availability. 

Eastern Illinois University's School of Business is one of 11 Illinois universities accredited in Business and Accounting by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Our MBA program prepares students for employment in positions of leadership in small and large businesses, industry, government, and non-profit organizations in a contemporary global environment. The program emphasizes the application of analytical tools and related skills that are essential for making informed business decisions.  MBA graduates continue or enter their professions in accounting, finance, operations management, consulting, human resource management, marketing, sales, and information technology.

According to Dr. Michael Dobbs, Associate Professor of Management and Graduate Faculty in our MBA program, "The very first MBA program was established at Harvard in 1908 as a professional degree program similar to schools of law or medicine. The faculty provided instruction in various business disciplines, but the primary goal was to train students to think in a broad, comprehensive way.

The EIU MBA program embraces that purpose and legacy by having a unique structure: courses in the various business disciplines (e.g., finance, marketing, accounting, etc.) are book-ended by two courses designed to encourage and develop a broad, comprehensive way of thinking. The MBA 5000 Strategic Management course is designed to be taken in the student's first semester and serves as an introduction to all the various disciplines.  In the student's final semester, MBA 5900 Management Simulation provides students with opportunities to bring the full range of their newfound knowledge and training to bear on a series of simulated business challenges.

Most MBA programs in the US have a course like one of these, but only a few have both courses. This structure makes the EIU MBA program not only different than most, but true to the legacy of training managers to think in broad, comprehensive ways so important to the early developers of the MBA program at Harvard¹."

Want to learn more? Whether you are already a business professional or whether you are thinking about becoming one, this website offers helpful information about EIU’s Online MBA program and what we have to offer. If you are interested in our MBA program with face-to-face classes that meet in Charleston, IL on our main campus, or in Champaign, IL at the Parkland College campus, please visit that program's web-site for details.

¹Yogev, E.  2001. Corporate hand in academic glove: The new management's struggle for academic recognition--The case of the Harvard Group in the 1920's. American Studies International, 39, (1), pp. 52-71. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41279789