Pamplin's executive MBA program partners with SAIC
The Pamplin College of Business and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a Fortune 500 scientific, engineering and technology applications company headquartered in McLean, Va., have formed an alliance to provide a tuition discount for the firm’s employees enrolling in the college’s executive MBA program.
“In exchange, the college will be a member of SAIC’s education alliance program, which connects employees with accredited academic institutions,” said Charles Jacobina, executive director of Pamplin's executive MBA program. The memorandum of understanding signed by the two parties provides SAIC employees a 7 percent tuition discount and a waiver of the application fee, starting with the 2011 spring semester.
The company's approximately 45,000 employees serve customers in the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the Department of Homeland Security, other U.S. government civil agencies, and selected commercial markets, according to its website. Its latest annual revenues were $10.8 billion.
The executive MBA program, based at Virginia Tech’s Northern Virginia Center – National Capital Region in metro Washington, D.C., secured its first corporate partnership in 2007, with Booz Allen Hamilton, and its second, a year later, with L3 Communications.
Launched in 2003, the executive MBA program currently enrolls 59 students in cohorts or classes of about two dozen students each. Students are recruited for cohorts that begin each September and February. Classes are held at the Northern Virginia Center every other weekend over an 18-month period.
The 19 executives in its newest, 13th cohort, represent such employers as Oracle, Microsoft, Verisign, eTrade, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security, as well as Booz Allen Hamilton and SAIC.
“The program is designed for busy, experienced professionals with or without business degrees,” said Jacobina. Its broad curriculum, he said, seeks to provide an understanding of the major elements of business, examines the ethical and global implications of management, and prepares managers for making decisions in a rapidly changing world. “Our program is designed to enhance the executive skills and personal confidence required for career advancement and to promote networking opportunities.”
