The Tippie College of Business’ Graduate Professional Programs have been honored by a national business education organization for its innovation and agility in redesigning the Iowa MBA in recent years. 

The college has received the Leadership in Graduate Business Education Curriculum Innovation Award from the Graduate Business Education Curriculum Roundtable. The Tippie team was honored for its exceptional innovation and agility, continuously evolving to meet market needs and deliver high-quality educational experiences. 

Their accomplishments include multiple innovations all at once---merging the online and professional MBA, massive scaling of online courses by utilizing a shared course model that maintained small class sizes, transitioning to 8-week course length, all of which highlight the flexibility, quality, and growth of the Iowa MBA. 

The team also introduced new capstone options that allow students to apply their learning directly to their organizations and the integration of communication skill-building throughout the Iowa MBA, resulting in tangible workplace impacts. 

Additionally, the team has made significant strides in incorporating artificial intelligence into their curriculum, offering new courses and certificates focused on AI for both professional and full-time programs.

“From merging our online and professional programs to adding AI courses to the curriculum, our team has demonstrated for more than five years that they can offer our students a relevant, flexible and affordable educational experience,” said Amy Kristof-Brown, dean of the Tippie College of Business. “Given the fast pace of change in business, they often must make multiple program changes at once and they always rise to the occasion.”

The Graduate Business Curriculum Roundtable is a global association of business schools whose mission is to advance graduate management education through curricular and co-curricular innovation.  The Curriculum Innovation Award was created in 2023 to recognize an individual or team for their sustained commitment and success in leading curricular innovations in business schools. 

Media contact: Tom Snee, 319-384-0010 (o); 319-541-8434 (c); tom-snee@uiowa.edu