Business schools at universities across the nation are competing for a dwindling supply of doctoral business professors to teach the increasing number of business students, according to CNN.com.
Richard Durand, the dean of the Kogod School of Business since July 2005, said the business field has a doctorate system that differs from most other fields.
The most common way for people to get Ph.D.'s in business is to get an undergraduate degree, work for a few years and then go back to school to get an M.B.A., he said. After that is achieved, some get a Ph.D. while others choose to go into business.
"We don't have people who get undergraduate degrees and then immediately get a Ph.D. - this is unique to business," Durand said. "Today, to get an M.B.A., you need work experience."
Durand said business market salaries are far more lucrative than teachers' salaries.
"Good people often get M.B.A.'s and then go for the money," whereas people who are earning their doctorates are forgoing the immediate money to become professors, he said.
"The reason we have a shortage is because the people who you want to go for Ph.D.'s are also the ones whom businesses want to hire," Durand said. "We have fewer people getting Ph.D.'s because they can get good jobs after their M.B.A.'s. The whole issue is that the supply of Ph.D.'s in business is much smaller than the demand from universities for Ph.D.'s in business."
There is a shortage of doctoral faculty in particular areas of Kogod, including finance and accounting, according to Durand.
"We always have problems hiring good people," Durand said. "Just because you have a Ph.D. doesn't mean you are good for Kogod."
Kogod searches for people who not only can do research, but who also are excellent teachers, Durand said.
"That makes it more difficult to hire, because we want both," he said.
Durand said he thinks Kogod has a strong faculty retention rate. Kogod currently has 58 full-time faculty for their 850 undergraduate and 425 graduate students, Durand said. According to its Web site, Kogod has a 15-to-1 student to faculty ratio, and its graduate program is ranked in the top 75 in the country. Business Week also considers Kogod to be among the top 80 business schools in the country, Durand said.
According to Cynthia Shaw, the director of communications for Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, their business school is not experiencing faculty shortage.
"We haven't had any issues or problems with retention, not counting people who have retired or had tenure issues," she said.
One possible solution for business schools with faculty shortages is for them to increase their teachers' salaries, which would also mean increasing student tuitions, according to the report on CNN.com. Another possible solution includes hiring people with doctoral degrees in related areas such as statistics, math and social sciences. Schools are also hiring more part-time professors and people who have had prior business experience.
All of Kogod's tenured faculty have doctorates or degrees in law, Durand said.
"If you teach business law, you are considered to be academically qualified with a Ph.D. in law," he said.
AU also has a renowned faculty who have worked in high-profile businesses, known as executives in residence. Michael Blumenthal, a freshman in Kogod, said, his Business 101 professor was the CFO for Citigroup for twenty years and worked for American Express, and his accounting professor worked for Price Waterhouse Coopers.
"All of them have definitely been the best professors I've ever had here," Blumenthal said.
