Reimagining the BBA Curriculum

AFTER A FIVE-YEAR PROCESS of extensive review, a newly imagined Goizueta undergraduate curriculum will begin to roll out in January 2023.

According to Senior Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Andrea Hershatter, “The revised curriculum enhances our ability to equip our BBA students for an increasingly data-driven world in which the outcomes of business decisions are multifaceted and far-reaching. It simultaneously helps us build our student competencies and address their desire to create individualized and customized academic experiences.”

Curricular updates strengthen analytics, provide more flexibility for building integrated interdisciplinary expertise, augment community engagement, and ensure that Goizueta BBA graduates are prepared for both their initial job and subsequent careers. With a new entry point that allows students to enroll as early as the beginning of their sophomore year, the new curriculum provides students with a strong foundation in data analytics; mini bootcamps to gain specific technology skills; an immersive, experiential capstone; and new interdisciplinary options in choosing areas in which to concentrate. Students will also move through a series of touchstone modules, including personal and professional development and a new BBA Boardroom experience.

In conjunction with the BBA rollout, Goizueta will also offer a business minor to Emory College students who are passionate about the liberal arts. The minor will be comprised of the foundations core and will provide introductory knowledge in each of the five functional fields of business.

The curriculum was developed by a faculty task force utilizing a design thinking process that provided many avenues for ideation from students, faculty, staff, alumni, and corporate constituents. The overall approach and the individual components were all guided by the BBA mission statement: “To help our students grow intellectually, personally, and professionally so that they feel enabled, empowered, and motivated to make significant positive contributions to the organizations they serve and to society as a whole.”