Tandem Degree Programs Team UC, International Partners

Gerardo Nuñez is accustomed to the high humidity and moderate temperatures of the coastal city of Concepción, Chile, so Cincinnati’s winter snowfalls presented him with a a bit of a jolt as well as skin that was drier than usual. But to Núñez, the adjustments are well worth it. For six months, he is studying in Cincinnati to get an MBA from UC’s business school.

When he returns to Chile, Núñez will continue to work on an MBA, not at UC, but at the Universidad del Desarrollo, in Santiago, Chile. When he is finished, he will have a double advantage - a double degree - one from UC and another from the Chilean institution.

The 27-year-old Núñez is the first student to enroll in the UC business school’s new joint degree programs. He is an example of a growing trend in international study abroad that pairs universities in two different nations to offer joint degrees. According to Susan Bacon, associate director of the UC Institute for Global Studies and Affairs, these programs are becoming more common in a world that increasingly requires workers to understand multiple cultures.

Núñez’s home institution in Chile is one of two joint degree programs UC’s College of Business Administration (CBA) has inaugurated. In addition to Núñez, the business school is now hosting three students from the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, China. In time, it is expected that additional joint degree programs will be added not just in business, but other disciplines as well.

CBA’s decision to offer these joint degrees comes as a result of demand, tempered by financial reality, says Larry Gales, academic director of CBA’s international programs and associate professor of management. “Some U.S. universities are operating branch schools overseas, and some are sort of fly-by-night. We didn’t have the resources and staffing to offer an overseas branch of the quality we would desire. We wanted our international programs to be the same quality and structure as we offer here in Cincinnati. And finally, the other issue is that we believe it is far more advantageous to the students to get exposure firsthand to a new and different culture,” he said.

So CBA started with institutions where relationships were already in place and opted for partnerships rather than branches. “We already had a relationship with a school in Chile for short course programs. The arrangement we had was that we offered them one or two scholarships a year for our MBA program. But we found that the demand was in excess of what we could provide scholarships for,” he said. Given that an American education is too expensive for many foreign students, the college decided to offer a program that shortens the amount of time the international student must spend here. For a joint degree, the MBA students must take at least 45 UC credit hours out of the usual 66-credit hours.

With the Chinese partners, the joint degree program came about as a result of Chinese government and business leaders coming to CBA for executive education. “To some extent it was initiated by these partners trying to get American education to be more affordable for their students,” said Gales. 

In theory, the relationship can work in reverse, too, if a UC student is interested in getting a joint degree with an overseas partner. However, participating students must be fluent in the language of both institutions. That requirement eliminates most U.S. students from consideration.

That doesn’t mean the joint degree program does not benefit U.S. students, Gales stresses. “While the international students will be more marketable, so will the U.S. students who sit along side them in class. It is a very enriching addition to class.”

Núñez arrived in Cincinnati from Santiago on Dec. 29, 2002, and will study at CBA until July. After participating in a three-week program at Babson College in Massachusetts, the native of Osorno, Chile, will then return home for three months of further study.

“I see this as an investment,” he said of his decision to pursue a joint degree. “I wanted to be in the best program I could afford and that took the least amount of time. I searched through the Business Week rankings and other sources,” he said.

“A U.S. education is very well regarded all over the world,” he said. “In my country having a U.S. graduate degree will weigh more than just having one from home.”

To pursue his MBA in Chile, Núñez takes classes at night after work. To come to UC, the industrial engineer took a leave of absence from the job he has held for two years as a program engineer at the Chilean Technology Research Corp. (Intec) in Concepción. This is not his first time in the United States. He has lived off and on in the USA, primarily in Corvallis, Oregon, three previous times. He has enjoyed the opportunity to educate residents of the United States about his part of the world. “Some of my classmates in Oregon would assume that I was Mexican since I spoke Spanish. They sometimes asked if, in Chile, I lived in trees or had electricity or lights. They are really very unaware of things outside this country.”

Before deciding to return to the United States for an MBA, Núñez considered enrolling in an Internet-based program. But he was sold by “the value added by being here for the same price. You really have to be here to learn about how things are done,” he said. His goal is to work as a consultant, perhaps internationally, and eventually become an entrepreneur heading his own business in Chile.