The Corporate Strategy and Operations Management programs at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce were both highly ranked in a Bloomberg BusinessWeek survey of more than 85,000 students at more than 100 top schools.
The survey asked students to rate program performances in 14 academic disciplines ranging from calculus and ethics to marketing and sustainability.
After being unranked in 2010, The Culverhouse College of Commerce was ranked No. 75 overall, behind only Florida and Georgia, who were ranked no. 42 and no. 57, respectively, in the Southeastern Conference.
The Corporate Strategy program is ranked No. 28, while the Operations Management program is no. 29. The top-ranked institution, Notre Dame, is No. 39 in corporate strategy and No. 10 in Operations Management.
“Being ranked in the top-30 is a very prestigious honor,” said Charles Sox, professor and director of Operations Management. “What makes it so great is the fact that the feedback comes from students and recruiters who hire our students. It’s nice to see that the employers believe that we are doing a good job preparing students for their careers.”
As part of Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s annual ranking of the top undergraduate business programs, senior business students from the 139 participating schools were asked to assign letter grades from A to F indicating how well their business programs teach 14 specialty areas: quantitative methods, operations management, ethics, sustainability, calculus, microeconomics, macroeconomics, accounting, financial management, marketing management, business law and corporate strategy, as well as entrepreneurship and international business, which were added this year.
“We really have a great faculty and staff,” Sox said. “Our academic advisors and our students work well together. It’s really a team effort from our faculty, staff and students that has helped the program be so successful.”
2008 was the first year The University of Alabama was ranked in the survey. Sox said this has helped the growth of the business school.
“We have seen an increase in the number of Fortune 500 companies that have come to campus specifically for operations,” he said. “Employers clearly recognize the value of the OM skills and knowledge that our students can use to improve their firm’s operations and supply chain.”
“We also see a lot more incoming freshman interested in these majors because of our visibility and ranking. It has really helped accelerate the growth and success of the program by having the strength of the program be recognized in that ranking. I expect it to help propel the program even further.”
