NMC inks partnership with UH

Northern Marianas College and University of Hawaii officials formally signed their partnership agreement yesterday, allowing NMC students to take up a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Hawaii while on Saipan, possibly beginning spring of 2006.

The signing was held before Gov. Juan N. Babauta and his Cabinet officials just prior to yesterday’s Cabinet meeting at the Governor’s Office.

The Memorandum of Agreement was signed by NMC president Tony Deleon Guerrero and University of Hawaii-Manoa’s Dr. Elaine Bailey and Kimberly Fujiuchi.

Bailey is department chair for Management at UH, while Fujiuchi is the director of Executive Education at the university.

The MOA commits the two institutions to work toward implementing the UH BBA program at NMC “in the near future.”

To expedite the planning process, former NMC president Agnes McPhetres has been appointed by UH to represent the institution in the CNMI.

The program is being designed so that students would spend their first two years completing an associate of arts degree in Pre-Business at NMC prior to applying to the UH College of Business Administration.

The courses in the NMC Pre-Business degree will be articulated with UH so that the credits will easily transfer.

Once admitted into the UH CBA, the student will be able to remain on Saipan and take UH courses on the NMC campus for the BBA degree.

Authorities said the degree will have an emphasis in Management, with the possibility of adding an emphasis in Accounting if there is sufficient demand.

Deleon Guerrero said details have yet to be worked out, such as course articulation, tuition rates and class scheduling. But the two institutions hope to be able to offer the first BBA cohort by the spring semester of 2006.

Established in 1949, the UH CBA is renowned for its expertise in international management education and was again ranked among the nation’s top 20 graduate schools for international business by U.S. News & World Report this year.

Long recognized for its Asia-Pacific focus, the college offers a wide variety of degree, certificate and executive programs featuring fresh, leading-edge courses in entrepreneurship and e-commerce. It places a strong emphasis on the development of management skills, the management of business information technology and executive education.

The UH College of Business Administration is the first business program in the State of Hawaii accredited by AACSB International–The Association to Advanced Collegiate Schools of Business.