The School of Business has traditionally offered a PhD in economics, but a faculty committee is now designing a School-wide PhD program. Under the leadership of Professor of Marketing S. Parasuraman, the committee is developing the curriculum, admission process and other elements of the new program. The plan is to offer PhD degrees in marketing, management and possibly management science (in addition to economics), with other disciplines added in coming years.

The School will formally announce the program in December, says Dr. Parasuraman. “We are planning to hold an information session on December 3 for current UM students at both undergraduate and graduate levels, from both within and outside the School of Business,” he explains. “We will begin accepting and processing applications in early spring 2008. Qualified applicants will be admitted by summer 2008 and begin their program of study in fall 2008.”

Dr. Parasuraman notes that “an active and strong PhD program is an essential pillar for supporting our School’s goal of enhancing its visibility and scholarly reputation in the academic and business communities, and among the public at large. It will serve as a catalyst for accelerating our already noteworthy rate of research productivity by stimulating collaboration between our faculty and PhD students. This, in turn, will enable us to place well-trained PhDs at, and recruit new faculty members from, other leading business schools.”