The Duke Goethe Executive MBA program's inaugural class began its first academic term Tuesday in Frankfurt, Germany, with a full class of international students. Of the 33 students in the class, 73 percent are German. The other students are from Australia, China, France, Slovakia, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the United States.
To commemorate the launch, the Fuqua School of Business and Goethe Business School hosted a celebration in Frankfurt on May 30. Professor Rudolph Steinberg, president of Johann Wolfgang Goethe Business School; Douglas T. Breeden, dean of Fuqua; Petra Roth, mayor of Frankfurt; John Payne, deputy dean of Fuqua; Joachim von Harbou, president of Frankfurt Chamber of Commerce; and Udo Corts, minister of education and culture, state of Hessen, made celebratory remarks to the 227 people who attended the ceremony and reception. Duke Goethe students, corporate sponsors, Frankfurt business leaders, local government officials and staff from both Goethe and Fuqua attended the event.
"We've put this innovative program together in a very short cycle-time from design to implementation, as cooperation between our two schools has been excellent," said Breeden. "We are extremely pleased with the level of interest in the Duke Goethe Executive MBA program from both potential students and their employers."
The Duke Goethe Executive MBA is a dual-degree, 22-month executive MBA program for working executives. Teaching takes place mainly at Frankfurt's new Campus Westend, which is located in central Frankfurt. The teaching in Frankfurt by faculty from both schools is combined with two weeks of in-residence classroom instruction at the Duke campus in Durham, as well as through the Internet using Duke's distance-learning platform.
The curriculum is based on both Duke's Cross Continent and Weekend Executive MBA programs. Initially, Duke faculty will teach two-thirds of the courses (including three-quarters of the courses required for the Duke MBA degree), and Frankfurt faculty one third. Over time, the plan is for both parties to contribute an approximately equal amount of teaching.