Bloomberg Businessweek has ranked the Evening MBA Program in the Bryan School of Business and Economics among the nation’s top part-time MBA programs of 2011.

Bryan’s program ranks No. 50, up from No. 64 in 2009. Among programs in public universities, the Bryan program ranks No. 22, earning even higher marks for affordability and salary increases for its students.

Businessweek rankings were based on separate measures of student satisfaction, academic quality, and post-graduation outcomes.

UNCG Chancellor Linda P. Brady notes the quality and real-world value of Bryan’s programs.

“I commend the exceptional faculty, staff and students in the Bryan School for this latest recognition,” she says. “The quality of the academic programs and the challenging learning environment that are hallmarks of the Bryan experience ensures our students excel both in the classroom and in today’s increasingly competitive job market.”

Like Brady, Bryan Dean McRae C. Banks, credits talented, hardworking faculty, staff and students with the evening program’s rise in the Businessweek rankings. But Banks makes additional observations about the rankings data, noting that the program excels in terms of career advancement, earnings potential and low cost for students.

“Students have different motivations for enrolling in part-time MBA programs,” he says. “Some students want to change careers and switch employers, but we have a high percentage of our students who want to advance their careers. Among programs with that emphasis, we are ranked fifth in the country. The benefit for employers that pay for their employees to attend our evening MBA program is that most of those students will remain at that company in a better position when they graduate. Of course, we are affordable, too. Among the top 50, we are the third least expensive, making the Bryan MBA a deal for students and employers alike. Two other important findings are that we are ranked No. 12 in the nation in academic quality, and our graduates realize an average 31-percent salary increase – the best in central North Carolina.

“Perhaps more importantly, we are in the process of strengthening all of our academic programs in the Bryan School. Over the coming year or so people will see some exciting and dramatically new curricula that exhibit even stronger ties to market needs, in other words, jobs. Just the promise of those changes has resulted in an increase of 67 percent in our masters enrollments this fall, and we are expecting a similarly large increase next fall.”

Vidya Gargeya, director of Bryan’s MBA program, says students in the program benefit from clarity about what is expected of them academically, collaboration with UNCG’s Career Services office, and close contact with quality professors and potential employers – which Gargeya describes as “high-touch.” He says flagship programs in other states that previously ranked closely with UNCG did not move up in the Businessweek rankings along with Bryan.

“This shows that we are doing something right, showing continuous improvement,” Gargeya says. “Even though we are high-tech, we are also maintaining a high-touch environment.”

A student satisfaction survey contributes 40 percent of the final Businessweek ranking, with academic quality and post-MBA outcomes contributing 30 percent each.

For the student-satisfaction measure, Businessweek surveyed part-time MBA students who had recently graduated or were nearing graduation about their academic experience.

To assess academic quality, Businessweek combined six equally weighted measures: average GMAT score, average student work experience, the percentage of teachers who are tenured, average class size in core business classes, the number of business electives available to part-timers, and the percentage of students who ultimately complete the program.

To gauge post-graduation outcomes, Businessweek calculated the percentage of student survey respondents from each school who said their part-time MBA program was “completely” responsible for their having achieved career goals. These can range from advancing a career with a current employer to finding a new employer or changing careers entirely.

George Upper, who completed Bryan’s Evening MBA in 2010, can attest to the marketability of his degree. Upper, now director of eBusiness and direct sales at Liberty Hardware, says his professors and the networking opportunities within the program made a big impact on his success.

“The experience of working in diverse teams was invaluable, and my professors provided expert feedback that challenged not only my writing and presentation skills, but also my strategic thinking in areas from operations to marketing,” he says. “The class sizes were perfect — large enough to ensure diversity in the student representation yet small enough to provide for ample attention for each student from the faculty. Many of the courses were offered online and I found those to be every bit as challenging and valuable as traditional classroom courses. My Bryan MBA equipped me with the tools of learning that I needed to be successful in a rapidly changing global marketplace.”

For the full rankings report from Businessweek, visit http://www.businessweek.com/business-schools/the-complete-parttime-mba-ranking-11102011-gfx.html

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