Concordia Gets a Dose of the Entrepreneurial Spirit

Joining the ranks of such institutions as the University of Texas, UCLA and USC, Concordia University in Irvine has just introduced an MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship.

The 21-month MBA program, the first offered by Concordia, will be inaugurated this fall with a class of 15 to 20. Students must complete eight courses, including accounting, management, and business and government classes, and write either a business thesis or a business plan to receive their degree. Classes are held twice a week at night.

Richard Harms, chairman of the business department at Concordia, said the four-year university’s foray into entrepreneurial studies is a response to student demand. The school’s undergraduate New Ventures class, for instance, is now the most popular course, and one-third of all incoming freshmen surveyed said they wanted to become entrepreneurs.

“We want to give the students what they’re looking for,” he said. “With job cuts in corporate America, students want to fend for themselves and start their own businesses.”

The Bill Gates syndrome is another reason for the explosion in entrepreneurship among students, Harms said. Students are all too aware of how wealthy the chairman of Microsoft Corp. and scores of other high-tech entrepreneurs have become in recent years.

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