DePaul University has formed a partnership with the Bahrain Institute of Banking & Finance (BIBF) to launch of the first Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree program in the Persian Gulf that will be taught by faculty from a highly-ranked and accredited United States business school. Students who complete the 18-month part-time program will earn an MBA from the DePaul’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, under the agreement.

      The proposed 16-course graduate business program, tentatively scheduled to open in the fall of 2001 at the BIBF’s executive education facility in Bahrain, will target high-level managers in the region’s business sector and possibly U.S. military personnel stationed in the Persian Gulf. Bahrain, an archipelago of 33 islands with an area of about 270 square miles off the east coast of Saudi Arabia, is known for its robust financial services and oil industry.

      Full-time faculty members from the school’s part-time MBA program in Chicago will travel to Bahrain to teach the courses. With about 2,500 students, Kellstadt is the eight largest American business school and it enrolls the largest part-time MBA program in the United States. The part-time MBA program is ranked fifth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The entrepreneurship education component of the program is ranked second in the nation by Success magazine.

      The focus of the Bahrain MBA program will be technology or entrepreneurship, or both, with an emphasis on finance. DePaul, BIBF and high-ranking Bahraini officials also are discussing several other education collaborations, including proposals for technology certificate courses taught by faculty from DePaul’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications and Information Systems (CTI) and a bachelor’s degree program through the School for New Learning, DePaul’s innovative adult education program.

      The partnership may result in DePaul providing business and computer consulting services to government and business organizations in the region, too. In addition, CTI is willing to assist BIBF in equipping its facility with the latest classroom technology.

      The Bahrain MBA program is modeled after the 24-month, in-house MBA that Kellstadt launched in 1997 for employees of the International Bank of Asia (IBA) in Hong Kong. IBA is a subsidiary of Arab Banking Corporation (ABC), headquartered in Bahrain. Pleased with the results of the IBA MBA program, Mike M. Murad, chief executive officer of the IBA and a recently elected DePaul trustee, introduced DePaul administrators to Michael Langton, director of the BIBF. The BIBF is an executive management education center in Bahrain.

      “There’s a tremendous need for graduate business education among Persian Gulf professionals in high level management positions,” said Arthur Kraft, DePaul’s Kellstadt dean. “Bahrain’s financial services sector wants to increase the technological expertise of its managers.

      Business and government leaders are interested in nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset that will help the state develop new products and services. DePaul, with its global education outreach and highly ranked programs for working professionals, was uniquely positioned to partner with the BIBF, a leader in continuing executive education in the Persian Gulf, to launch this pioneering educational effort.”

      The DePaul-BIBF partnership was forged through a series of meetings in the Middle East that brought together Kraft, Langton; Murad; the Rev. John P. Minogue, C.M., DePaul president; John Kordek, DePaul’s associate vice president for external relations; and with the region’s business, cultural, education and government officials.