Business Is Booming : Two UC Campuses Hope to Stay in the Race With Expanded Schools

By PATRICK LEE

May 3, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Upping the ante in the increasing competition among top business schools, UC Berkeley on Tuesday unveiled its new $55-million mini-campus for the 97-year-old Haas Business School, while UCLA is making final preparations to dedicate its own $75-million management school complex next month.

Both expansions reflect the national trend of business schools as they try to keep pace with technology, appeal to a broader range of students and justify increasing tuitions, education experts say.

The expansions are also occurring as demand for business programs--particularly among top institutions such as Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and UCLA’s John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management--have grown dramatically in the past year as the national economy has continued to improve.

Business Week magazine, which ranks business programs nationally, reported this week that applications at the top 20 schools nationally were up 19% this year, with some schools reporting record levels.

That marks a turnaround for many schools that had reported dropping applicant pools during the last few years.

“There is intense competition between business schools . . . certainly for top faculty, for the very top students and for attracting recruiters to create good career opportunities for their students,” said William A. Hasler, dean of the Haas school. “Our deciding that it was necessary to have a building that was as good as, or better than, anyone’s is a reflection of that competition.”

At Berkeley, the Haas school saw applications jump by 37% this year. At UCLA, applications for business programs were up between 20% and 22%, administrators said.

And while recruiters argue that the master of business administration degree no longer holds the cachet it did in the 1980s, when new MBA recipients had their choice of plum jobs, an MBA from a top school is still seen as a plus.

“It’s just one factor, but clearly it’s a positive,” said Caroline W. Nahas, managing vice president at Korn/Ferry International, one of the nation’s leading executive search firms.

Said Richard Kwartler, editor and publisher of the MBA Newsletter: MBA “salaries seem to be moving up at a more favorable rate . . . and there is a feeling that the MBA provides a security blanket against being cut in the face of corporate downsizing.”

At a time when public funding for state universities in California is being squeezed, business schools are an attractive venue for corporate and other private donations. Berkeley’s new school was built entirely with private funds, including $23.75 million from the Haas family of Levi Strauss & Co. and additional funds from 2,000 other donors.

The new building “symbolizes . . . the importance of both management education and the business community to the future of this university,” Berkeley Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien said.

UCLA’s new management school complex, to be dedicated June 8, was built with $35 million in gift money, $27 million in state funds and $13 million from other campus revenue, said John Sandbrook, associate dean for operations at the Anderson school.

Berkeley’s new 204,000-square-foot complex brings all functions of the business school together. Since 1964, the Haas school, which includes both graduate and undergraduate programs, had shared quarters with the economics, political science, sociology and Near Eastern studies departments in antiquated Barrows Hall.

The new structure contains state-of-the-art technology, including library tables wired for laptop computers, and emphasizes classrooms and public areas to encourage group discussion and teamwork.

UCLA’s seven-building, 280,000-square-foot complex will represent a 40% increase in space, Sandbrook said. It will also feature state-of-the-art technology, including classrooms wired for computers.

Unlike Berkeley, UCLA offers an executive MBA program aimed at mid-level managers working full time. The new complex is intended in part to appeal to executives accustomed to advanced facilities. That is also part of a national trend, as business schools look more to continuing education programs as a way to bolster the traditional daytime MBA programs.

The new facilities will probably also make it easier for the business schools at both UCLA and Berkeley to increase tuition for their business programs, which are now well below the cost of private business schools. Berkeley’s tuition is expected to increase by $2,000 over the current $14,361 for an out-of-state resident, spokesman David Irons said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

UC Berkeley

Name: Haas School of Business

Number of students: 1,300

Tuition, full-time MBA: $6,662 for California residents, $14,361 for non-residents

Programs: undergraduate degree, full-and part-time MBA, PhD.

National ranking: 19 (Business Week), 10 (U.S. News & World Report)

Specialties: international business, entrepreneurship, technology management

UCLA

Name: John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management

Number of students: 1,200

Tuition, full-time MBA: $6,486 for California residents, $14,185 for non-residents