ITEM 112-2014-R0901   ATTACHMENT

September 27-28, 2001

PROPOSED MINOR IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

OBJECTIVES AND NEEDS

 1.       Program Centrality - Centrality to or enhancement of the institution's approved mission and institutional objectives to be achieved by the addition of this program.

The establishment of a minor in international business within the College of Business at Montana State University-Bozeman (MSU-Bozeman) is central to the land grant mission of the institution. The land grant mission of MSU-Bozeman mandates the support of professional schools including the training and graduation of business professionals. Specifically, the Morrill Act establishing the land grant universities stated that these institutions were created "to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes on the several pursuits and professions in life."  In today's modern economy the corollary to the
"industrial classes and professions" is the broad business economy. Consequently, the land grant mission of MSU mandates establishing and supporting a professional school of business with up-to-date curricula and programs. (http://www.ifas.ufl.edu/www/ls_grant/morrill1.htm)

The proposed minor in international business (IB) is just such a curriculum improvement that will expand the perspective and competencies of our graduates as required by the dynamic global economy that exists today. Specifically, the IB minor is designed to provide added, distinct value to the accounting, finance, management and marketing business graduate. Rather than competing as a plain-vanilla finance graduate who has expertise in banking, finance, investments and the management of financial institutions, the finance graduate who selects the IB minor will possess the added capability to manage currency exchange, international transactions, and other international finance skills within a financial setting.

The IB minor degree requirements total 29 credits including Econ 314, International Economics, MKTG 441, International Marketing and MGMT 464, International Management. Of the 29 credits at least 15 credits must be at the upper-division, and all courses must be selected from a list of approved courses. The minor will be open to both business and non-business students.

2.       Need for Program - Justification should focus on documented need in the appropriate service area for the program - national, statewide, regional, or community: provide objective data, studies, the results of institutional needs assessments appropriate to the program's nature and the expected outcomes and performance of its graduates.

The need for the IB minor has been communicated to the College of Business by a number of important primary stakeholders including students, parents, other on-campus constituents, employers and members of the regional business community.

Prospective students, current students and alumni have repeatedly asked why MSU-Bozeman does not have more course work and some type of degree designation in international business. While prospective students are forced to select alternatives both in-state and in neighboring states for a major degree in international business, many of the students who have made the decision to attend MSU Bozeman are also interested in courses with a focus on the global business economy. Evidence of this level of interest is given through the enrollments in the two upper-division management (MGMT) and marketing (MKTG) electives currently offered in the college that cover IB topics. The table below summarizes the enrollments for MGMT 464, International Management, and MKTG 441, International Marketing, for the period 1991-1999. These enrollments indicate a sustained interest by current business students.

Additional student input regarding curricula in international business was collected through a student survey in the spring of 1999. In this 1999 survey 36.9% of 401 respondents indicated that they would be interested in a global business option if it were available. The 148 positive responses regarding interest in global business coursework lends strong support to the need for an international business minor.

Students in modern languages and economics have also expressed interest in a minor in business that relates to their selected course of study.

The proposed minor is a response to the increasing globalization of business and the need of college graduates to have exposure to international business issues.

According to researchers, "there is evidence that the lack of global awareness on the part of U.S. business students has weakened the capacity of U.S. business corporations to compete internationally." (Webb et al. 1998:38) Therefore, companies increasingly "value a global orientation in their new employees." (Grahn & Vanden Bloomen 1995:88). "As the global market expands and opportunities develop, American business leaders must consider the international environment critical to their future successes." They must make business a prominent part of their strategic agenda and a significant factor in deciding whom they employ. As such, industry should be demanding that colleges and universities prepare the kind of managers it will take to succeed in the new world order of business. . . Students who wish to be tomorrow's business leaders must be properly prepared and that requires a thorough international business education." (Nash 1997:74-75, 76; see also Grahn & Vanden Bloomen 1995)

Large companies are looking for employees with knowledge of international issues. In 1992, seventy-four percent of the CEOs of the 150 biggest multinational companies agreed that expertise in business, cross-cultural or political relations beyond the U.S. was important when hiring business graduates. (Ball & McCulloch 1993) Sixty-nine percent of those same CEOs said that expertise in international investment, lending, trade or related activity was important, and 71% said foreign languages were important. (Ball & McCulloch 1993).

There is a plethora of opportunities for students with an understanding of international business. There was a seven-fold increase in international business positions advertised in the National Business Employment Weekly in 1995 compared to 1973-75, averaging 97 such advertisements per month. (Webb et al. 1998) While most of the positions advertised were for mid-level managers, over 20% of the positions advertised required no more than an undergraduate degree, and no more than 5 years experience. (Webb et al. 1998). These figures are probably low because they do not include information from smaller companies that do not advertise in NBEW (Webb et al. 1998:47).

Opportunities in international business exist in Montana as well as nationally. In 1999, Montana exported almost $609,000,000 in products, of which exports of merchandise products amounted to almost $324,000,000 and agricultural products almost $228,000,000. (Massachusetts Institute) Montana's exports of merchandise alone increased 66% from 1993 to 1999, placing Montana 20^th in the nation in percentage increase during that period. (State Merchandise Export Totals to the World 1993-99, Ranked by 1993-99 Percentage Change) This dramatic increase in exports over just six years indicates that Montana is likely to continue to increase its participation in the global economy, and that Montana businesses will increasingly need to hire graduates with knowledge of the international business environment.

The 1999 survey of employers by the COB's Strategic Planning Committee indicates that knowledge of a foreign language and international experience could well be helpful to students. Some comments by the respondents included the observation that knowledge of a foreign language "enhances marketability,"  "would be nice," and "could never hurt."  Another commented that international experience "wouldn't hurt."

3.       New Courses the program will add to the curriculum.

The IB minor will not add any new courses to the curriculum.

ADEQUACY, ACCREDITATION AND ASSESSMENT ISSUES

1.       Adequacy of present faculty, facilities, equipment, and library holding in support of program, compared to known or anticipated minimum standards for accreditation.

The current accreditation of the College of Business through AACSB International, the leading professional accrediting body for colleges of business, will not be affected by the creation of this minor degree program. The current full accreditation, which was reaffirmed in 1998, will not be changed or altered by the creation of the minor.

2.       If special accreditation will be sought, timetable and costs associated with attaining and sustain full accreditation status as well as the level needed for each to fulfill anticipated minimum standards for accreditation.

No additional accreditation will be sought, and the addition of minor degree programs will not change the requirements or the accreditation status of the college.

3.       Assessment Plan: how the program will "fit" within the institution's internal, approved assessment process and specifically address the major assessment components of academic performance and program relevancy to student-society needs; complementing the guideline provided to campuses by the OCHE and the intra-campus Committee on Outcomes Assessment (ICOA).

The institution uses a decentralized model for student outcome assessment.  MSU-Bozeman policies are described on the campus web site (http://www.montana.edu/aircj/assess/).  As part of the campus policy the College of Business has implemented an assessment plan as required.  Details of this policy include assessment of business content, communication skills and problem-solving skills.  Feedback is collected on a regular formal basis from students, alumni and employers.  Details of the college plan are available at the MSU-Bozeman web site. (http://www.montana.edu/aircj/assess/majors/majors9899/plan/Business.html)

The effectiveness of the proposed minor will be evaluated as a portion of the business content assessment. Surveys of students, alumni and employers currently include sections on international business which will provide a valid measure of the effectiveness of the IB minor.

IMPACT ON FACULTY, FACILITIES, COSTS, STUDENTS, AND OTHER DEPARTMENTS AND CAMPUSES

1.       Additional faculty requirement, including qualifications, salary, and recruitment.

No additional faculty will be needed to support the proposed IB minor.

2.       Impact on facilities.

Capacity of the existing facilities is adequate to meet the requirements of the proposed IB minor. The library, computer laboratory and classroom resources that will be needed do not exceed the current needs of the College of Business. Over time capital improvements that occur to meet the dynamic needs of the business curricula will be adequate to satisfy the marginal needs of the IB minor.

3.       Cost, to be submitted in detail for the first year, for the biennium, with an estimate of continuing costs of the program over a five-year period. These costs should reflect new faculty, increased library costs, space requirements, equipment, other facilities needs, and sources of funding. Institutions will be expected to demonstrate how the needed resources will be drawn from existing budgets, and how and which programs will be suspended or terminated to generate the needed resources (if necessary).

No new sources of funding will be needed to support the proposed minor in IB. Increased student demand for the current courses will be funded through increased SCH generation. The central administration at MSU-Bozeman has committed to budgeting processes through which budget dollars can be reallocated at the margin to programs that are growing. Additional sections, if needed, will be funded directly by ongoing college instructional budgets. Even if the IB minor attracts new SCH to business, economics and modern languages the increases may simply make up decreases in overall enrollments across the university.

4.       Impact on enrollment, numbers of students (both graduate and undergraduate) with lower and upper division course breakdowns, and the number expected to graduate over a ten-year period.

It is hoped that new enrollments for the IB minor will create student demand of approximately 15-25 students for each of the courses included in the minor. This increase in demand will occur gradually over time, stabilizing after approximately four years. However, these additional enrollments are not likely to strain current capacity since it has been predicted that overall business and campus enrollments will soften and decline in the next decade. An analysis of the high school populations in MT and in the primary feeder states to MSU-Bozeman suggests that growth in the number of graduating high school seniors will level off by 2003, and begin to decrease at that point in time. (Source: US Dept. of Education High School Graduation Statistics: http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/1999038.pdf).

In light of the regional softening of university enrollments the creation of new program offerings such as the IB minor may be critical to maintaining stable enrollments. At MSU-Bozeman the number of new entering students is expected to decline unless we recruit students successfully from competing schools, particularly in other parts of the nation. College bound populations are expected to increase in other regions of the country so out-of-region recruitment will be increasingly important. The addition of the IB minor will help in recruiting out-of-state students and thus in stabilizing enrollments in the existing business courses.

The future viability of the minor in IB is assured by the fact that the courses already have a primary market from current student demand. The creation of the new minor will simply broaden the target market for the existing courses. The target student population is junior level students from all majors across campus but primarily business, modern language and economics.

5.       Relationship to other programs on campus, including the inter-departmental implications of this program�s addition to the curriculum, and/or to the role other departments play in contributing courses to this program.

The proposed minor in IB will support and enhance the enrollments in other campus programs and departments. The minor is designed to be a valuable addition to a number of majors with a particular emphasis as a complement to the business options of accounting, finance, management and marketing. Cooperative meetings were held with the department chairs of modern language and economics in designing the curricula of the IB minor such that the anticipated enrollments in international economics would not place undue strain on their resources. It is anticipated that the minor will make positive contributions to the capability of the business graduates who elect to complete the IB program, and to the revenues of the university.

6.       Relationship to other institutions.

A number of business programs in our region have a minor or a major in international business.

The minor proposed at MSU-Bozeman will not compete with international business major degree programs within the state of Montana since the target student population consists of students who have already selected MSU-Bozeman for the existing major programs. The IB minor will provide additional skills to current MSU-Bozeman students.

Regional schools that currently offer IT or related programs are summarized below.

REFERENCES

Ball, Donald A. and Wendell H. McCulloch, Jr., "The View of American Multinational CEOs on Internationalized Business Education for Prospective Employees," Journal of International Business Studies, 24:2, 1993.

Grahn, Joyce L. and Dennis R. Vanden Bloomen, "Including a Foreign Language Component in Tertiary International Business Program Curricula: A Critical Analysis," Journal of Teaching in International Business, 7:1, 1995.

Larson, Harvey, A 90 Year Metamorphosis: The School of Business at Montana State University, 13, 41, MSU Archives, 1984.

Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research, Montana Exports for 1999 State of Origin Data Series, available online at http://ceic.commerce.state.mt.us/Economic/Exports/stats99.htm (Aug. 14, 2000)

Nash, Bernard A., "Internationalizing the Business School-Responding to the Customer's Needs," Journal of Teaching in International Business, 9:1, 1997.

State Merchandise Export Totals to the World 1993-99, Ranked by 1993-99 Percentage Change, Office of Trade and Economic Analysis, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, available online at http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/industry/otea/state/merchandise/Worldtot4.txt (Feb. 14, 2001)

Webb, Marion S., Kenneth R. Mayer and Virginia Pioche, "Survey of International Business Positions Advertised in the National Business Employment Weekly," Journal of Teaching in International Business, 10:1, 1998.