Willamette University: Atkinson

Established in 1974, the Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management provides the MBA for Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, US. It is accredited for business administration and public administration and is one of only two MBA programmes globally to have this distinction.

Among its various historical markers are its original and continuing commitment to “offer an innovative approach to the study of management, combining the principles of business administration and public administration” (1974 – present). In 2006 the school developed an educational centre in Portland, Oregon and launched the MBA for Professionals programme for experienced managers. The MBAP and the Early Career/Career Change MBA programme combine to prepare students in all stages of their career for careers in business, government and not-for-profit organisations. The school constantly reviews and adapts its curriculum to changing times and emphasises “learning by doing”. The school is regularly ranked by Business Week (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018) and Forbes (2015, 2017 (survey occurs every two years)).

Currently there are 312 students in attendance, across the full-time Early Career/Career Change MBA (Salem) and the MBA for Professionals (Salem and Portland). The Early Career/Career Change programme has three tracks: MBA, BA/MBA and JD/MBA.

All of Willamette’s courses accent hands-on experience, with the MBA for early career and career change. The best example of this is with its “experiential learning” and “consequential learning” emphases.

The average age of a full-time student is 25. A third of students in these programmes come from overseas. Meanwhile, opportunities for Willamette students to study overseas include programmes at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, Bordeaux Business School, EM Strasbourg Business School in France, and Peking HSBC Business School, China.

Among notable alumni are: Punit Renjen, global CEO of Deloitte; Grace Crunican, general manager of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District; Gurpreet Pall, director of program management for Bing Local Search, Cortana Ecosystem, Multimedia Search and Bing Global Rollout, Microsoft; Neil Bergquist, co-founder and CEO at Coinme and UpToken; Collin Schilling, CEO of Schilling Cider.