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Jacksonville University Targets Working Pros With Downtown MBA Program

Ryan Benk
/
WJCT News

Administrators of Jacksonville University’s Davis College of Business were on hand Wednesday to woo potential students to the school’s fledgling downtown master’s program.

The new program will focus on students already in the workforce.

The university’s classroom space in downtown's SunTrust tower will open in the fall.  College of Business Dean Don Capener said the new program has the potential to transform the lives of students already working in the field.

“We have executive MBA courses for those with 10 years plus of experience, and we have what we call a 'flex MBA' for working professionals,” he said. “That program is more focused on what we’re doing here in terms of allowing folks to do some of their coursework online and some of their coursework here in our downtown location.”

The business school will share the space with JU’s College of Healthcare Sciences.  Together they’ll have around 30 faculty members and enroll as many as 125 students the first year.

Capener hopes that’s just the beginning. He said he would like to see hundreds of students attend at the campus in the near future.

“We’ll expand to the point health science and business will have separate floors rather than share the 18th floor, which is the current configuration,” he said.

As the Florida Times-Union reports, the city's Downtown Investment Authority gave the university a $274,000 loan toward renovating the building. 

Ryan Benk can be reached at RBenk@wjct.org

Ryan Benk is a former WJCT News reporter who joined the station in 2015 after working as a news researcher and reporter for NPR affiliate WFSU in Tallahassee.