About our Graduate Programs

Overview

Samford University has offered undergraduate business degrees since 1922. In 1965, the School of Business was established to offer both the bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business. Alabama’s first part-time MBA program was established at Samford shortly thereafter, and the first MBA degrees were awarded in 1967. The Master of Accountancy degree was approved in 1995. The School of Business became fully accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB International) in 1999 and was renamed the Brock School of Business in 2007 to honor longtime Samford trustee and Alabama banking legend, Harry B. Brock, Jr.

Our core values:

• We affirm Samford University’s purpose and mission as our own in the development of business leaders.
• We believe that our Christian perspectives and commitments should permeate and integrate all of our organizational goals and activities.
• We consider learning to be an activity that never ceases, and that the life of the mind is a faithful and noble pursuit.
• We believe that service within organizations is a vocation in the sense that it is a calling that should be treated with great importance and utmost respect.
• We believe in the pursuit of excellence in all dimensions and activities.
• We value the creation of timely, relevant, participatory, and experiential learning environments that develop well-trained persons who add value and achieve fulfilling roles within their organizations, communities, and the global environment.
• We value research and scholarship that develops core competencies, serves society, and equips people and organizations to cope with change and meet challenges.
• We are blessed with and compelled by our tremendous resources to serve our community.
• We respect and value unique and diverse experiences and perspectives contributed by individuals learning and working in a collegial environment.
• We demand ethical behavior, integrity, caring concern, and stewardship from ourselves, our constituents, and the organizations we serve.

Teaching Format

The Brock School’s graduate courses are conducted using multiple pedagogical approaches. Student work experiences and readings mixed with the knowledge and perspectives of faculty and visiting executives provide the primary sources of learning. This knowledge base is shared and internalized through discussions, individual and team tasks, management case studies, and various class exercises. Students should be able to apply learning in business settings, create empowered work environments, identify value-adding opportunities, develop teamwork capabilities, and accept greater accountability.

Accreditation

Samford University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of College and Schools (SACS) to award associate, bachelors, masters, education specialist, and doctoral degrees. This status was most recently affirmed in 2007, continuing a relationship that Samford has enjoyed with SACS since 1920. The Brock School of Business is also accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Joint Degree Programs

Joint-degree programs allow students to simultaneously pursue degrees in two areas of interest with fewer credit requirements than earning the degrees separately. Graduate joint-degree programs currently offered within the Brock School of Business are:

Master of Business Administration/Master of Accountancy (M.B.A./MAcc.)
Master of Business Administration/Juris Doctor (M.B.A./J.D.)
Master of Accountancy/Juris Doctor (MAcc./J.D.)
Master of Business Administration/Master of Divinity (M.B.A./M.Div.)
Master of Business Administration/Master of Science in Nursing (M.B.A./M.S.N.)
Master of Business Administration/Doctor of Pharmacy (M.B.A./Pharm.D.)*

Information about the joint degree programs is available from the Graduate Programs Office in the Brock School of Business.

*The MBA/PharmD program is a dual degree program