Institute for Global Business

Ohio knows that business competitiveness is global competitiveness, and it's all centered today at The University of Akron. With its carefully planned and flexibly organized programs, the Institute for Global Business is an important part of international business in Ohio. Whether you are a student, an employee, or an employer, the Institute for Global Business can help in your success.

We offer a variety of programs to interested students, including an undergraduate major, minor, and certificate program and a Master of Business Administration in International Business. Besides offering a wide array of IB courses in our degree and certificate programs, we are flexibly organized and equipped to offer programs specifically designed to meet your organization's needs. For example, we can develop short courses in exporting, importing, tariffs, global negotiations, global purchasing, global legal issues and others that you tell us you need.

Our Guiding Principles

• Educational Advancement - through quality academic programs for undergraduate and graduate students.
• Professional Development - through custom-designed training and programs.
• International Operations Experience - by sending UA faculty and students abroad to teach, learn and experience foreign realities and through welcoming international students to enhance understanding of global business operations.
• International Information Gathering - to create the most current collection of international business materials for students, faculty and the community.

Our Methods

Improving Local Business Firms
With our market-oriented approach, we find out what the business community wants and then provide it. Business input is used to determine topics, formats, locations and cost for international business development programs.

Developing Partnerships with Business Executives
Even the best educated Ph.D. in international business may not have as much international business experience as area managers. Academic theory and teaching methods are combined with practical experience for a program of the highest quality.

Learning from the World's Best
While only a few business schools have reputations for outstanding international business programs, we investigate what constitutes the best practices and then custom design programs for global managers.

Improving Continually
As the nature of global business competition rapidly changes, we continuously monitor our programs and improve them using feedback from the business community.