Dr. Barbara Lee
Professor

From my perspective, our primary competitive advantage is simple; we have the strongest group of faculty with expertise in Strategic Human Resource Management and Global Human Resource Management in the world. The faculty really understands business and Human Resources’ role in business. They have a deeper vision beyond their own particular area of expertise and are able to put their particular area of expertise in the context of the wider needs of the business organization. We’re really training students to be business partners; we’re not training them for entry-level positions.

I’ve been very impressed with the partnerships that are created between our students and our faculty; they’re real collaborators. Our faculty members frequently say they learn so much from their students, and our students frequently say they learn not only from our faculty, but from their fellow students as well. It’s a real community that we’ve built here; it’s not just one-way communication.

We’re very responsive to students, probably because we consider them our partners. Personally, I created a student advisory committee so that students have an opportunity to meet with me directly and talk about their experience here. This is a place where you are going to be challenged, but you are also going to be comfortable as a respected individual. You won’t get lectured at; you won’t get talked down to; you won’t get treated like an undergraduate.

Another great competitive advantage our program offers students is our impressive record of job placement. We devote quite a few resources to making sure that we have the very best potential employers meet our students. We send information to Fortune 100 and 500 companies about our program and our students and use MonsterTrak so that selected companies can access student resumes. Right from the beginning, we work very hard to get the best students and, once they’re in, make sure they get rewarding professional positions. Many of our students have several excellent job offers to choose from when they graduate.