University, rival team up with GM

IU and Purdue will combine some of their strengths in January, offering a distance education double-degree program to employees of General Motors, Indiana's largest private-sector employer, University officials announced last week.\nIt will provide employees of the world's largest vehicle manufacturer with advanced degrees, IU with a large pool of qualified applicants and the state of Indiana with a better trained workforce, officials said.\nThe rival universities will offer a one-two punch to GM management candidates -- a master's of engineering from Purdue and a master's of business administration from IU.\nIU's Kelley School of Business and Purdue's Continuing Engineering Education program will offer the double-degree program.\nThe program will be accessed through the Internet and will include material tailored to GM and the automotive industry. But unlike some similar programs, students sponsored by GM will be required to go through the same IU application process, said Richard Magjuka, director of distance education for the Kelley school.\nEmployees will be able to earn their master's degree from their home or office using the Web and other media. After earning technical master's degrees from Purdue or other universities, GM engineers then would be eligible to apply for the online MBA program at the Kelley School.\nIU Kelley School Dean Dan Dalton said in a statement that he was "delighted" with the partnership.\n"It is said that you are known by the company you keep; this is, indeed, terrific company," Dalton said in a statement. "Most importantly, however, it is the students who will benefit from the concerted efforts and resources of this consortium."\nOther universities offering master's degrees in engineering through the program are Carnegie Mellon University, Kettering University and the University of Michigan. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute will offer a master of science degree in management.\nGM put a bid asking IU and its peer institutions to reply to a request for a distance technology education program, Magjuka said.\n"A number of institutions wanted to develop this relationship and we were able to get it," Magjuka said. "It also enables us to begin developing a relationship with Purdue engineering -- important since Purdue has an extensive distance engineering program, and because they have very good students."\nMagjuka said a major consideration to offering this program was maintaining the high standards and quality of the Kelley program. The University was able to do that, he said.\nThe Kelley Direct program is the only such graduate management program offered by a top 20 business school that is entirely Web-based, according to an IU press release. It uses discussion and debate forums, online testing, audiostreaming and videostreaming, simulations and time-revealed scenarios for case-based learning. Kelley also offered the first fully online MBA of nationally ranked top-20 business schools.\nEmployees of corporate partners go through the program, while IU benefits as corporate partners build programming, professors keep in touch with corporations and money is raised for the school, said Meghan Boston, director of marketing for Kelley Executive Partners and for the online MBA.\n"Companies raised the need that their employees needed MBA-level skills, but they didn't want to lose them for two years," Boston said.\nGM students will be exempted from a one-week program at IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis, required of regular students enrolled in the program.\nThe GM double-degree program will start in January. Registration begins in the fall.